Posts Tagged ‘Mainstream’

August 7th, 2008

Urban Indian Subcultures: My Placeholder Hypothesis on the Indian Cultural Mainstream

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I first asked: are there any subcultures in urban India that go beyond religion, caste, class and language? (tweet)

Then I realized that before I try to understand Indian subcultures, I’ll have to first ask: what is (the mainstream) Indian culture? (tweet)

So, I asked my friends on Twitter –

So, what is (the mainstream) Indian culture? Bollywood? Cricket? Weddings? Hindi soaps? Divisions wrt religion/caste/language? What else? (tweet)

Dina Mehta, Rajesh Lalwani and Harshil Karia responded that in a country as complex as India, there can’t be a dominant mainstream culture –

RajeshLalwani: I wish it was that simple. I don’t think it is that easy to qualify Indian cultural mainstream. (tweet) can we define anything as mainstream for an entire nation (tweet).

Harshil: I don’t believe there is a master Indian culture (tweet)… (even though)… key cultural indicators are religion, family, democracy (and the nuances attached to it) and cricket. (tweet)

Dina: I shy away from such stereotypes. My worldview may differ from yours. What’s mainstream to me may be different to you. (tweet) eg. twitter is mainstream for me & not a subculture. makes me think is culture static? can anyone say this “IS”. (tweet) More importantly, my worldview of urban indian culture is driven by my existence here. slums juxtaposed with hi-rise (tweet).

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August 7th, 2008 | Posted in Culture | Tagged with , , , |

August 7th, 2008

Urban Indian Subcultures: What is a Subculture?

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.

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August 7th, 2008 | Posted in Culture | Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |