As you have understood, I am going to focus on the social and cultural aspects of India. This video is from a Bollywood Movie named Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, and the song's title is "Balam Pichkari". In this music video, they were celebrating the festival of love and colors, Holi.
The main points of the post are:
1. Western Portrayal of India in Film
2. Religion
3. Social Structure
4. Politics
5. Gender Equality Today?
Western Portrayal of India in Film
Slumdog Millionaire (2008) is a British drama by Danny Boyle. You must have heard of it! The movie is mainly about poverty and slum. Is this a sterotype of India's poverty and underdevelopment? Many people have labeled it as poverty porn. A man named Shyamal Sengupta commented that "It is a white man's imagined India, a poverty tour". Well, my opinion is that the movie is imbalanced and overly stereotypical.
Religion
There is a lot of diversity in India. In India, you have freedom to practice religion, and that is Your fundamental right. A lot of People have misconception about the state religion. They they think that the state religion is Hinduism, but that is not true. There is no official state religion. Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism have Indian origin. In daily life, a lot of peoplefrom different religions live in peace and harmony. They follow each other's traditions and rituals as well.
From personal experience, I went to a church in Chandigarh to celebrate Christmas eve, and there I saw a lot of hindus, sikhs and muslims celebrating. I was positively surprised.
Social Structure
Your "standing" in the society is determined by how much power and which class you belong to (like in many other countries).
The country is experiencing economic growth, and therefore the middle class is growing fast. India has a big middle class that consists of doctors, engineers, IT-Professionals and many more. Although, India has a big middle class, the gap between the wealthiest and the poorest is still huge.
For those who haven't seen the previous post, this skyscraper is a private Residential property which belongs to India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani. It is after Buckingham Palace the most expensive residential property. It is named "Antilia", and is located in South Mumbai (Mumbai, Maharashtra).
Politics
The 2014 general election brought new leadership to India. Narendra Modi, a poor teaseller (a chaiwala) was elected Prime Minister. He is now the ninth most powerful person and one of the most influential people in the world. BJP won a landslide victory with their promise to change Indian politics, to ensure development and that "Good Times Will Come".
India has overtaken China as the fastest growing major economy in the world, expanding by 7.3pc and cementing its position as one of the sole bright spots in a flailing global economy.
Make in India is described as "A MAJOR NEW NATIONAL PROGRAM. DESIGNED TO FACILITATE INVESTMENT. FOSTER INNOVATION. ENHANCE SKILL DEVELOPMENT. PROTECT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. AND BUILD BEST-IN-CLASS MANUFACTURING INFRASTRUCTURE" - (http://www.makeinindia.com/home)
Digital India is a campaign to ensure that Government services are made accessible to citizens electronically by improving online infrastructure and by:
1) increasing Internet connectivity
2)making the country digitally empowered in the field of technology.
The initiative includes plans to connect rural areas with high-speed internet networks. Digital India has three components:
1. The creation of digital infrastructure
2. Delivering services digitally
3. Digital literacy
For women Empowerment there are a lot of governmental campaigns. I will show some of them:
1. 'Sukanya Smriddhi Yojana' for education of girls under which children can open their own bank accounts where they will be provided an interest of 9.1 percent besides tax-benefits.
2. Save girl child, educate girl child is a scheme that aims to generate awareness and improving the efficiency of welfare services meant for women.
The objectives of the campaign are:
-Preventing gender based abortion
-Ensuring survival & protection of the girl child
-Ensuring education of the girl child
3.The government has also launched a mobile helpline (181) for women.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (English: Clean India Mission) is a national campaign covering around 4041 cities and towns, to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country. As you have understood, it is quite difficult to keep up with all the campaigns and things that are happening in India, and therefore a website is made by BJP, so that people who simply want to keep up with all the updates or want to give any suggestions they can do so.
https://www.mygov.in/
Gender Equality Today?
India’s poor track record in terms of gender equality is another issue. In recent years, stories of rape have caught the world’s attention. Due to the awareness now, people inside the country have started several projects in order to empower women. A lot of non-governmental organizations are doing several campaigns, projects and ads which have caught the attention of international media. Here are two examples:
The first example is of a campaign called “The Abused Goddesses”. This campaign condemns domestic violence. The slogan is “Pray that we never see this day. Today, more than 68% of women in India are victims of domestic violence. Tomorrow, it seems like no woman shall be spared. Not even the ones we pray to.”
Each ad includes a phone number to report abuse to “Save Our Sisters.”
"My choice" is a video made by the magazine Vogue and aims to encourage people to think and act in ways on issues pertaining to women's empowerment. This video stars 99 women who have made a difference in their respective careers.
I will end this post with a quote from the video:
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