How was our India? How is our India? How will our India be?

How is our India?

India is a hierarchical society. Whether in north India or south India, Hindi or Muslim, urban or village, virtually all things, people, and social groups are ranked according to various essential qualities. Although India is a political democracy, National of complete equality are seldom evident in daily life. Societal hierarchy is evident in caste groups and kinship groups. Castes are primarily associated with Hinduism, but caste - like groups also exist among Muslims, Indian, Christians, and other religions communities within most villages or towns, everyone knows the relative rankings of each locally represented caste and behaviour is constantly shaped by this knowledge.

Individuals are also ranked according to their wealth and power. For example, some powerful people ,or
"big man", sit confidently on the chairs, while " little man" come before them to make requests, either standing or squatting not presuming to sit beside a man of high status as an equal.

Hierarchy plays an important role within families and kinship groupings also, where man outrank women of similar age, and senior relatives outrank junior relatives. Formal respect is accorded family members - for example, in northern India, a daughter-in-law deference to her husband, to all senior in-laws, and to all daughters of the household, siblings, too, recognise age differences with younger siblings addressing older siblings by respectful terms rather than by name.

SOCIAL INDEPENDENCE

One of the great themes pervading India life is social Independence. People are born into groups- families, clans, subcastes, castes, and religious communities - and feel a deep sense of inseparability from these groups. People are deeply involved with others, and for many, the greatest fear is the possibility of being left alone, without social support. Psychologically, family members typically experience intense emotional interdependence. Economic activities, too are deeply imbedded in a social nexus. Though a multitude of kinship ties, each person is linked with kin in village and towns near and far. Almost everywhere a person goes, he can find a relative from whom he can expect moral and practical support.

In every activity, social ties can help a person and the absence of them can bring failure. Seldom do people carry out even the simplest tasks on their own. When a small child eats, his mother puts the food into his mouth with her own hand. When a girl brings water home from the well in pots on her head, someone helps her unload the pots. A student hopes that an influential relative or friend can facilitate his college admission. A young person anticipates that parents will arrange his of her marriage. Finally, a person facing death expects that relatives will conduct the proper funeral rites ensuring his own smooth passage to the next stage of existence and reaffirming social ties among mourners.

This sense of Interdependence extends into the theological realm. From birth onward, a child learns that his "fate" has been "written" by divine forces and that his life is shaped by powerful deities with whom an ongoing relationship must be maintained.

VEILING AND THE SECLUSION OF WOMAN

A significant aspect of Indian family life is Purdah ( from Hindi parda, or "curtain"), or the veiling and seclusion of woman. In much of northern and central India, particularly in rural areas, Hindu and Muslim women follow complex rules of veiling the body and avoidance of public appearance, especially before relatives linked by marriage and before strange man. Purdah practice are linke to patterns of authority and harmony within the family. Hindu and Muslim purdah observance different in certain key ways, but female modesty and decorum as well as concepts of family honor and prestige are essential to the various forms of purdah. Purdah restrictions are generally stronger for women of conservation high-status families. Restriction and restraint  for women in virtually every aspect of life are essential to Purdah, limiting women's access to power and to the control of vital resources in a male-dominated society.

Sequestered women should conceal their bodies and even their face with modest clothing and veils before curtain categories of people avoid extramarital relations, and move about in public only with a male escort. Poor and law-status women often practice attenuated versions of veiling as they work in the fields and on construction gangs. Hindu women by conservative families veils their faces and remain silent in the presence of older male-in-laws, both at home and in the community
A young daughter-in-law even veils from her mother-in-law. These practices emphasize respect relationships, limit unapproved encounters, and enhance family lines of authority.