August 7th, 2008
Urban Indian Subcultures: What is a Subculture?
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I have received some interesting responses to my query — are there any subcultures in urban India that go beyond religion, caste, class and language?
But even before I try answer that question, I need to answer another: what is a subculture?
Let’s start with culture first. Culture is the way of life for an entire society, the sum total of the lifestyles of its individual members. To understand a society’s culture, you need to understand how its members form their identities — from the things they own, the experiences they have, the relationships they share, and the meaning they create (through literature, art and music).
Every society has a mainstream culture, several subcultures and/ or underground cultures, and, rarely, even a counterculture.
The mainstream culture is the sum of high culture that is valued by the society (classical music/ traditional dance) and popular culture (blockbuster movies/ prime time soaps) that is liked by most of the members in the society.
