Diwali

Festival of Lights.....

Diwali is one of the biggest festival of Hindus, celebrated with great enthusiasm and happiness in India. The festival is celebrated for five continuous days, where the third days is celebrated as the main Diwali festival or 'Festival of lights'. Different colorful varieties of fireworks are always associated with this festival. On this auspicious day, people light up diyas and candles all around their house. They perform Laxmi Puja in the evening and seek divine blessings of Goddess of Wealth. The festival od Diwali is never complete without exchange of gifts. People present diwali gifts to all near and dear ones.

Diwali Celebrations

In the midst of today's busy lifestyle, Diwali gives an opportunity to pause and be grateful for what we have, to make special memories with family and friends, to laugh and enjoy what life offers us. Though the festival of Dipavali has undergone some changes, in due course of time, yet it has continued to be celebrated since the time immemorial. Every year, the festive season of Diwali comes back with all the excitement and merriment. Times may have undergone a sea change but customs and traditions remain the same.

It is difficult to state that, since when the festival of Dipavali has been celebrating in its present form. In India, the economy is based on agriculture, this festival was believed to be started as the celebration of 'rituparva' thousands of years ago. By this time the harvest of crops were complete. As a result the people had not to worry about food for the rest of year. This joys of their reflected ion the illumination of countless lamps. In due course of time, numerous historical incidents got connected with this festival. There are many tales in the Puranas related with this festival. 

With the evolution of the lifestyle, there has been certain change in the way people celebrate Diwali, as more and more technology has been included, but the zeal and the spirit of celebration remains the same. Earthen lamps may have been replaced with stunning electric illuminations, dress code may have changed, but the custom and tradition of performing puja has been carried very well through generations. 

People wake up at the crack of dawn to conduct the customary pujas. Dressed in brilliant silks and glittering gold jewelry families gather and light crackers to usher in the great evening. After a session of bursting crackers, its time to visit friends and relatives. Armed with sweets and savories people meet their near and dear ones. Even today, Diwali is such a wonderful festival, a time of giving and sharing, a time to catch up with people, in other words its time to catch up with the little joys that we keep overlooking for the remaining part of the year.

(Diwali Festival in India is celebrated in different ways in Different parts of India. I will tell you how it is celebrated in the state of Maharashtra where I belong.)

Diwali celebration in Maharashtra is interestingly different from what is seen in other parts of the country. In a typical Marathi family Diwali celebrations starts with 'Vasu-baras' that comes on tithi 'Ashwin krushna dwadashi' as per Marathi calendar. Vasu-baras is a celebration held in honor of cows - regarded as mother by Hindus. Following the rituals of the day married women perform 'puja' of cows having calf. The tradition symbolizes a woman’s gratitude towards cow for serving them and their children. 

Dhanatrayodashi

Dhanatrayodashi is a popular name for Dhanteras in Maharashta. Some also celebrate Dhanvantari Jayanti on this day to honor the great ancient doctor Dhanvantari. On the day of Dhanatrayodashi 'Yama-Deep-Dan' is held wherein mothers and wives make one ‘divas’ each for all living male in the family. The diva, made from the kneaded flour is lit and offered to Lord Yama in the evening. As they perform the ritual womenfolk pray to Lord Yama - the Hindu mythological God of Death that their husbands and sons be blessed with a long life. 

Narak Chatudarshi

Chhoti Diwali is popularly known as Narak-Chaturdashi in Maharashtra. On this day people celebrate Narakasur’s death by Lord Krishna. They get up early in the morning and massage their bodies with scented oil. And as a custom they use 'utane' or 'utanah' for bath instead of soap. This special bath is referred to as 'abhyang-snan'. It may be noted that 'Utane' is not the same as uptan. Utane is made of several things having ayurvedic properties like 'chandan' (sandalwood), 'kapoor' (camphor), manjistha, rose, orange skin and haldi (turmeric).

Diwali Celebrations - Lakshmi-Pujan

Lakshmi-pujan is celebrated on the Diwali evening. Believing that Goddess Lakshmi visits every house in the evening, people perform ‘Lakshmi Puja’. This is essentially a worship of Goddess Lakshmi, Lord Ganesh, money, jewelleries and the broom. 

A variety of mouth-watering delicacies including chivda, chakali, shankar-pale, anarse, kadaboli, karanji, shev, chirote etc are prepared to mark the festival. Throughout Diwali, Marathi people hang 'Akash-kandil' / 'Akash-dive' and light up 'panti's outside their houses. Tradition of drawing colourful 'Rangoli's is also followed in Maharashtra as in rest or India.

Diwali Cha Padva

The third day of Diwali is also celebrated as 'Diwalicha Padva' by many. This is a celebration of togetherness of husband and wife and love shared by them. To mark the occasion wife does 'aukshan' of her husband and husbands present a special gift to their wife. 

Bhav-Bij

The last day of Diwali festival is called Bhau Bij. In this sisters do 'aukshan' of their brothers and pray for their long life. Brothers, in their turn bless their sister and pamper them with loads of Bhau-Bij gifts.

Tulsi-Vivah

In Maharashtra, end of Diwali celebrations marks the beginning of Tulsi-Vivah. Under this people organize marriage of sacred tulsi (a basil plant) in their house. In Maharashtra the tradition is that people start organizing marriage ceremonies of their sons/daughters only once Tulsi-vivah starts. Celebration of Diwali ends with Dev-Diwali.

Mumbai Celebrates Ganesh Chaturthi

Ganesh Chaturthi is the blessed day when Lord Ganesha appears to confer happiness to the people on earth. Also called Vinayaka Chaturthi, Ganesha Festival is celebrates the birthday of the Lord. It is observed for 10 days, starting from Shukla Chaturthi till Ananta Chaturdashi (Hindu dates fall between month of August or September) throughout the country. States like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh celebrate this festival in the most grandiose manner.

A boy prepares a huge idol for the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai on August 23, 2010.

Mumbai, the Financial Hub of India, commemorates this event in really extravagant style, with utmost devotion. It's the time when streets bustle with devotees and huge 'pandals' (canopies) are set up, housing the idols of Lord Ganesha - the Lord of Beginnings, Wisdom, Prosperity and Good Fortune. Every nook and corner of the city appears drenched in the celebrations, excitement and enthusiasm. However, the preparations for this festival start 2-3 months before the event, with the making of clay models of the Lord.

On the festive day, the idol is placed on elevated platforms in homes or outdoor canopies, where people come to pray. A red silk dhoti is worn by the priest, who invokes life in the idol by chanting mantras (ritual known as Pranapratishtha). Followed by this, Shhodashopachara (16 ways of paying tribute) is done. Later the idol is smeared with red unguent (rakta chandan). While doing all the rituals, hymns from the scriptures like Rig Veda, Ganapati Atharva Shirsha Upanishad, and Ganesh Stotra are chanted.

For complete ten days, Lord Ganesh is worshipped with whole-hearted devotion. The image is taken into a procession, where devotees dance and sing to their heart's content on the 11th day. Eventually, the idol is immersed in the sea with reverence. Throughout the procession, people yell 'Ganapathi Bappa Morya, Purchya Varshi Laukariya' which means 'O Father Ganesh! Come again early next year'. Ganesh Chaturthi is a great festival of religious and social fervor, which presents a valuable insight, especially in Mumbai.

Poverty in India - A Social Issue

According to a recent Indian government committee constituted to estimate poverty, nearly 38% of India’s population (380 million) is poor. This report is based on new methodology and the figure is 10% higher than the present poverty estimate of 28.5%.

The committee was headed by SD Tendulkar has used a different methodology to reach at the current figure. It has taken into consideration indicators for heath, education, sanitation, nutrition and income as per National Sample Survey Organization survey of 2004-05. This new methodology is a complex scientific basis aimed at addressing the concern raised over the current poverty estimation.

Since 1972 poverty has been defined on basis of the money required to buy food worth 2100 calories in urban areas and 2400 calories in rural areas. In June this year a government committee headed by NC Saxena committee estimated 50% Indians were poor as against Planning Commission’s 2006 figure of 28.5%.

Poverty is one of the main problems which have attracted attention of sociologists and economists. It indicates a condition in which a person fails to maintain a living standard adequate for his physical and mental efficiency. It is a situation people want to escape. It gives rise to a feeling of a discrepancy between what one has and what one should have. The term poverty is a relative concept. It is very difficult to draw a demarcation line between affluence and poverty. According to Adam Smith - Man is rich or poor according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, the conveniences and the amusements of human life.

Even after more than 50 years of Independence India still has the world's largest number of poor people in a single country. Of its nearly 1 billion inhabitants, an estimated 260.3 million are below the poverty line, of which 193.2 million are in the rural areas and 67.1 million are in urban areas. More than 75% of poor people reside in villages. Poverty level is not uniform across India. The poverty level is below 10% in states like Delhi, Goa, and Punjab etc whereas it is below 50% in Bihar (43) and Orissa (47). It is between 30-40% in Northeastern states of Assam, Tripura, and Mehgalaya and in Southern states of TamilNadu and Uttar Pradesh.

Poverty has many dimensions changing from place to place and across time. There are two inter-related aspects of poverty - Urban and rural poverty. The main causes of urban poverty are predominantly due to impoverishment of rural peasantry that forces them to move out of villages to seek some subsistence living in the towns and cities. In this process, they even lose the open space or habitat they had in villages albeit without food and other basic amenities. When they come to the cities, they get access to some food though other sanitary facilities including clean water supply still elude them. And they have to stay in the habitats that place them under sub-human conditions. While a select few have standards of living comparable to the richest in the world, the majority fails to get two meals a day. The causes of rural poverty are manifold including inadequate and ineffective implementation of anti-poverty programmes.The overdependence on monsoon with non-availability of irrigational facilities often result in crop-failure and low agricultural productivity forcing farmers in the debt-traps. The rural communities tend to spend large percentage of annual earnings on social ceremonies like marriage; feast etc.Our economic development since Independence has been lopsided .There has been increase in unemployment creating poverty like situations for many. Population is growing at an alarming rate. The size of the Indian family is relatively bigger averaging at 4.2.The other causes include dominance of caste system which forces the individual to stick to the traditional and hereditary occupations.

Since the 1970s the Indian government has made poverty reduction a priority in its development planning. Policies have focused on improving the poor standard of living by ensuring food security, promoting self-employment through greater access to assets, increasing wage employment and improving access to basic social services. Launched in 1965, India's Public Distribution System has helped meet people's basic food needs by providing rations at subsidized prices. Although it has affected less than 20% of the Poor's food purchases, the system has been important in sustaining people's consumption of cereals, especially in periods of drought. It has provided women and girls with better access to food and helped overcome the widespread discrimination against female consumption within households. It has also reduced the burden of women, who are responsible for providing food for the household.

The largest credit-based government poverty reduction programme in the world, the Integrated Rural Development Programme provides rural households below the poverty line with credit to purchase income-generating assets. Launched in 1979, the programme has supplied subsidized credit to such groups as small and marginalized farmers, agricultural laborers, rural artisans, the physically handicapped, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Within this target population, 40% of the beneficiaries are supposed to be women. Although the programme has reached 51 million families, only 27% of the borrowers have been women. The programme has significantly increased the income of 57% of assisted families.

Rural poverty is largely a result of low productivity and unemployment. The Jawahar Rozgar Yojana, a national public works scheme launched in 1989 with financing from the central and state governments, provides more than 700 million person days of work a year about 1% of total employment for people with few opportunities for employment. The scheme has two components: a programme to provide low-cost housing and one to supply free irrigation wells to poor and marginalized farmers. The public works scheme is self-targeting. Since it offers employment at the statutory minimum wage for unskilled manual labor, only those willing to accept very low wages the poor are likely to enroll in the scheme. By providing regular employment and thereby increasing the bargaining power of all rural workers, the public works scheme has had a significant effect in reducing poverty. It has also contributed to the construction of rural infrastructure (irrigation works, a soil conservation project, drinking water supply). Evaluations show that 82% of available funds have been channeled to community development projects. Targeting was improved in 1996 when the housing and irrigation well components were delinked and focused exclusively on people below the poverty line.

TRYSEM (Training rural youth for self employment) was started to provide technical skills to the rural youth and to help them to get employment in fields such as agriculture, industry, services and business activities. Youth of the poor families belonging to the age-group of 18-35 are entitled to avail the benefits of the scheme. Priority is given to persons belonging to ST/SC and ex-servicemen and about 1/3 seats are reserved for women. Minimum Needs Programme was taken up as an integral part of the 5th Five Year Plan and it was intended to cater to the minimum needs of the people such as rural water supply, rural health, road building, adult education, primary education, rural electrification and improvement of the urban slums etc.With the intention of removing urban unemployment some schemes such as SEPUP (Self-employment programme for the urban poor); SEEUY (Scheme for self-employment of the educated urban youths) .These schemes gives loans and subsidies for the urban unemployed youths to create or to find for themselves some jobs. The SEPUP had provided financial help for about 1.19 urban unemployed youths in the year 190-91.

The participation of civil society organizations in poverty reduction efforts, especially those directed to women, has increased social awareness and encouraged governments to provide better services. Cooperatives such as the Self-Employed Women's Association provide credit to women at market rates of interest but do not require collateral; they also allow flexibility in the use of loans and the timing of repayments. These civil society organizations have not only contributed to women's material well being; they have also helped empower them socially and politically. Such credit initiatives, by bringing women out of the confines of the household, are changing their status within the family and within village hierarchies. The demands of civil society organizations for better social services have spurred the government to launch campaigns to increase literacy and improve public infrastructure. And their calls for greater accountability and real devolution of power are increasing the likelihood that expenditures for poverty reduction will reach the needy, especially women.

The Indian state has undoubtedly failed in its responsibilities towards its citizens over the last 50 odd years. There is a need for the state to move out of many areas and the process has been started with economic liberalization. The process of decentralization should devolute lot more powers, both functional and financial, to panchayats. The lack of transparency and accountability has hampered our economic development at all levels. The problem of poverty persists because of a number of leakages in the system. New laws have to be evolved to ensure more accountability. Bodies like the Planning Commission should be modified into new constitutional bodies that can hold governments accountable for their failure to implement development programmes. A strong system of incentives and disincentives also needs to be introduced. The encouragement of non-governmental organizations and private sector individuals in tackling poverty is imperative, as the state cannot do everything.

Indian Heritage

India is a land of diverse cultures. The variations in physical, climatic conditions and the extent of exposure to other cultures have greatly influenced the traditions and culture of the different regions. There is an underlying basic factor common to the whole of India, with variations in the practices based on their local needs and influences. Further, the greatness of India has been in accepting the best from all the invaders and intermingling the new customs and styles with the existing - this is visible in all aspects - music, dance, painting, sculptures, architecture.

This article, an excerpt from the introduction to the book "The Art and Architecture of India" by Benjamin Rowland puts it all in a nutshell.

The history of India and its art has been so bound up with the geographic nature of this vast continent that something must be said of these physical characteristics. India has a kind of impregnable geographic isolation. It is in the shape of a great sealed funnel extending from the heartland of Asia. This peculiar shape of the peninsula made for an inevitable retention and absorption of all the racial and cultural elements that poured into it. The peninsula is bounded on the west by the Indian ocean; on the east by the Bay of Bengal. Along the northern frontier India is almost sealed off from the Asiatic mainland by the rocky curtain of the Himalayas from Baluchistan to Assam. The only openings in this formidable natural fortification are the various passes of the north-west, such as the famous Khyber and Bolan passes, which wind through the mountains seperating India from the Iranian plateau. Through these gaps came all the migrating tribes and conquerors that made themselves masters of the rich plain of India.

The cultural divisions of India proper have always been determined and dominated by the great river systems, the watersheds of the Indus and Ganges, the Deccan plateau and South India.

Climate, no less than geography has played its part in the development of the peculiarly indigenous traits of Indian history and art. All the races of martial character have grown up in the dry and hilly districts of north-west and centre, whereas the fertile plains of Bengal and South have been inhabited by peaceful and unwarlike cultivators.

The overpowering nature of India has in a way forced upon the inhabitants an inability to act, a situation responsible for the Indian races having become lost in religiosity.

The mystery of Indian myths and Indian art lies partly in the fact that it suggests rather than states. It could truly be said that Indian symbols of art voiced the same truth as Indian philosophy and myth.

In India, all art, like all life, is given over to religion. Indian art is life, as interpreted by religion and philosophy.

Indian art may, in a general way, be described as theological, hieratic, or, perhaps best of all as traditional. The purpose of Indian art, like all traditional art, is primarily to instruct men in the great first causes, which according to the seers, govern the material, spiritual and celestial worlds. Art is dedicated to communicating these great truths to mankind and, by the architectural, sculptural and pictorial reconstruction of the powers that maintain the stars in their courses.

This site on Indian Heritage www.indian-heritage.org, is a non-commercial site, wherein attempts have been made to collect and provide information on all topics relating to Indian art, culture and tradition.

India Culture

India is a boiling pot of flavours from all around the world. This is because of the invasions that our country has succumbed to from time immemorial. The Aryans, the Guptas, The Mughals, The Marathas, The Dutch, French and ultimately The English have left lasting imprints on the soil of the country.

So India’s culture today is a mix of what has happened during the princely times, the Raj and the motley of the contemporary world. The society is formed on what have been the perceptions and what the modern world requires. But Indian cultures are rooted deeply within religion. An individual acts or reacts based on what has been his upbringing that is indirectly affected by his religion.

Cultures, foods, and festivals of India is directly related. The culture of a person determines how he sits, talks, walks and what he eats. For instance in the south, a meal is incomplete without rice. And 90% of every dish contains coconut. On the other hand, in the north wheat flour products are mandatory in every dish. So be it in the form of puris or parathas, hail the wheat flour. This is because that particular resource grows in their very backyard. So access is simple. This enhances the product usage and adds to the culture nimbus.

Respect elders, talk in a low tone, be God fearing and work hard are a few of the characters parents teach irrespective of where you live in India. In adulthood creativity is encouraged and individuals take up various arts and crafts that reflect the culture of the country. Even the festivities and rituals are so meticulously celebrated that one can see it has been handed down from generations keeping the culture alive.

Infact the distinct culture of India has attracted people from around the world. No doubt tourism has been escalating year after year. This is because India is rich in heritage and culture and has opened its arms wide open for countries outside to embrace.