India

Until a few years ago, I did not know a lot about the Indian people, their personal lives, their views, ideologies, their history or anything. Coming to Canada, I have learnt quite a bit from my indian friends who are either first, second or third generation Indians. Having friends from India and coming from a country just like India in numerous ways, I have learnt the importance of culture and family. Back in the day, when any discussion comes up that concerns india, I think of Culture, music, dance, happy, loving and caring people.

India being one of the countries in south asia, is right by Pakistan and Thailand and China. Bollywood, being the most popular Indian movie produce is the Indian version of Hollywood, hence it is just as popular as Hollywood movies in Nigeria where I grew up. Growing up in Nigeria, I was exposed to a lot of the Indian culture, the people, and their way of life as a lot of Nigerian cultures can be related to the Indian culture, today the Nigerian movie industry is called Nollywood after Hollywood and Bollywood. Bollywood being the largest producer of Indian movies is often regarded the second largest movie producer in the world after Hollywood as they tend to produce about the same amount of movie as their Hollywood counterpart.

Having seen a lot of Bollywood movies, and the help of the few indian friends i have mode over the years, It is quite obvious that the Indian people hold strongly to their religion, culture and heritage. Indian is know to be one of the most populated nations in the world, hence resulting to a high rate of poverty on a lot of Indian’s. Despite the population of India, its people still believe strongly in marriage as it is the best way for them to keep their family trees alive for generations. The issue of marriage in the Indian culture is not as simple as i stated earlier, as a lot of indian marriages are arranged, with or without the consent of the people being married hence making it one of the most controversial and debatable topics affecting Indian societies home and abroad. The issue of arrange marriages in india is often seen as a gap between the younger generation and the older generation, as the younger generation are tying to westernize, hence marry in the name of love and the older generation obviously do not believe in love before marriage, it can be argued that they believe that after marriage and over the years, of the marriage, the couple would grow to cherish, respect and maybe love one another in the future. This is often seen as the cause of dispute between families as parents and grandparents often try to carry on their traditional values. Despite this dispute between family members, the indian people are quite peaceful respectful and traditional.

India being a very cultural country also has strong regards for religion as its regions are states divided in accordance to religious believes of the people living in the region Islam, Buddhism, and hinduism are the dominant religions in India. As a result of the religious and regional segregations as well as the British influence on the people of india, India happened to be bilingual making English and Hindi, the official languages. Being a political science student, I have studied the life of Mohamed Gandhi, India's most popular human rights activists and revolutionist. According to Ghandi, the only reason why the British colonized India was because the Indians traded with them, hence establishing some sort of relationship with the government officials and the locals.