American vs Indian culture
No two cultures are the same. The American and Indian cultures have very vast differentiation between them..While the culture of America is a mixture of different cultures, the Indian culture is unique and has its own values.
One of the major differences that can be seen between American and Indian culture is in family relations. While the Indians are very much family oriented, the Americans are individual oriented. In Indian culture, the family values are given more prominence than the individual values. Indians respect family values. On the other hand, in American culture the individual values gets prominence than the family values. Indians are more committed to their family where as the Americans are more committed to themselves only.
In another sense, it can be said that the American culture is more goal oriented and the Indian culture is more people or family oriented. Indians may even forsake their individual wishes and also happiness for the sake of families. But in American culture, this trend cannot be seen.
Unlike the Indians, the Americans plan things ahead. The Americans believe in dominating nature and controlling the enviorment around them. On the contrary, Indians believe in the harmony with nature.
Another difference that can be seen between Indian culture and American culture is that the Indians love stability where as the Americans love mobility.
In American culture, one can see that the individuals think of self-reliance and independent. On the other hand, Indians are more dependent on others. While the children in the US are brought up to live an independent life, the children in India are not brought up in that way. In Indian culture, there is respect for the elders and it is they who make decisions. But in American culture, each individual makes his own decisions.
Coming to competition, Indians are more competitive than the Americans. Coming to work nature, the Indians work for meeting the family needs. On the contrary, an American will only strive to rise on his own capacity or getting rich. Another difference that can be seen is that Americans have great regard to time and its value.
Summary
1.Indians are very much family oriented, the Americans are individual oriented.
2.Indians respect family values. On the other hand, in American culture ,the individual values gets prominence than the family values.
3.Indians are more competitive than the Americans.
4.Americans have great regard to time and its value.
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In India, around 2/3rd of the population is below or close to 30, so does talking about old age problems (which exist) sound awkward?
Consider this, out of every 10 elderly couples in India, more than 6 are forced by their children to leave their homes. With no place to go and all hopes lost, the elderly have to resort to old age homes, which do not guarantee first class treatment. In India, unlike USA, parents do not leave their children on their own after they turn 18 (of course there are exceptions), but children find it hard to accept the fact that there are times when parents want to feel the love that they once shared with them. There are times when parents just want to relax and want their children to reciprocate their care. Every parents wants to see their child grow and be successful but no parent wants their child to treat them like an unnecessary load on their responsibilities.
Every other day, we see news of parents being beaten up by their children, parents and in laws being forced to do the house hold chores, being made to live in small dungeon like rooms, their property being forcefully taken over by over ambitious children.
There are 81million older people in India-11 lakh in Delhi itself. According to an estimate nearly 40% of senior citizens living with their families are reportedly facing abuse of one kind or another, but only 1 in 6 cases actually comes to light. Although the President has given her assent to the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act which punishes children who abandon parents with a prison term of three months or a fine, situation is grim for elderly people in India.
According to NGOs incidences of elderly couples being forced to sell their houses are very high. Some elderly people have also complained that in case of a property dispute they feel more helpless when their wives side with their children. Many of them suffer in silence as they fear humiliation or are too scared to speak up. According to them a phenomenon called ‘grand dumping’ is becoming common in urban areas these days as children are being increasingly intolerant of their parents’ health problems.
http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2009/07/old-age-problems-india/
Sill, many people will come forward with excuses and justify that Indian culture is great.
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I just just stopped seeing man from India a couple days ago. Maybe he is not the norm, I don’t know. But, from my experience this has been the most racist experience of my life. You can’t have a relationship with and proudly take a female to dinner where you might be around family or friends for fear of ridicule. That’s absurd, and it’s not fair. I was married to an Israeli, dated men from Marco, Venezuela, Lebanon, Romania and now India. Yes, I like foreign people, I find them widely more interesting. However, never again will I date an Indian man.
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From my point of view,INDIA has great culture because in INDIA, we give respect to everyone,people concerned about their family and responsibility as well. If I talk about countries then i would like to say INDIA is the best country to Live because I saw many foreigners who came out from their country & they are living here ,WHY? Just because they like our culture ,they like India’s traditional dresses,foods and many more…. In India every person depend on their elders decision because they respect their elders and everyone knows that the value of elder person in their lives,but if i talk about American culture it’s good but not Excellent than the India.I proud to be an Indian & I love Indian Culture.
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India is d best….i work for an international process….i know how lazy r Americans….they r jst leaving on virtual money(credit card) ….Indians do u know dat for 8 months american govt bank was in mortgage under indian govt…..dis shows dat how responsible d citizens r in america…….
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Interesting article. My daughter had an Indian roommate as a freshman in college and it was a big learning curve. The parents had conference calls twice a week with their daughter which ended in screaming matches. The roommate told my daughter she chose the University because it was the furthest away from her family but that didn’t stop them from visiting often. They always brought food to to their daughter when they visited and it stunk up the whole small room. The roommate also had some culturally ingrained idea that her bed must not be against a wall and put it in the middle of the room there by taking up 3/4 of the space of the room. Eventually, my daughter moved out and into a room with a more suitable roommate. The roommate left my daughter a profanity laden message when she moved out. Daughter never looked back was much happier.
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I believe that India has a great culture,which is soon going to be a thing of past as we Indians are just copying,influenced by western culture(see vulgarity in Bollywood and English overpowering all languages of India ,clothes etc).it is increasing day by day,…don’t know what will happen and what can be done,anyways Indian culture is really great.
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Thanks to our parents that they play a part on selection of choosing bride/groom for us else the scenario like u have multiple divorces in a single life will land soon and yeah Indian men want virgin coz most of them are and other way meaning is most of the girls are virgin bfr marriage too… look at your % of sexually transmitted diseases, that’s all bcz u don’t hv any control over anything..and yeah let it be 21st century or 5000 BC, living a healthy life is all meant how you balance your mind…nothing physical..Indians no need to learn living from you kind of bitches (21st century)
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Even Indians are also in lead positions in terms of sexual deseases bro…
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Once Gandhi said “it is not the greatness of a person who is working, it is the greatness of a person who gave work and so we must be ever thankful to them.” I am an Indian I love india but I don’t love most of Indians. Coz people are cunning, cheating, and people hide their own faults and and try to show goodness, we Indians say India is unique because of unity in diversity, where is unity? Unity among religions? Unity among thousands of castes? Unity among tribes? Respect towards other languages? Respect towards foreigners? and the list goes on…coming to family relations aren’t there people who have taboo sexual relations within the families like other countries?, who respects elders in India, just go to villages and check out you see only old age people (mostly) . clashes within the families, clashes about properties in family, in in India we fight for father’s property. Aren’t there people who live with parents for their properties? check out the list once in district/state/supreme courts.. Courts don’t have even time to solve them. But that I agree there are few who give priority to family relations not most…
Coming to religion and castes, you can see plenty of clashes, violence, killings by RSS,SHIV SENA,GO SAMRAKSHAN DHAL, in India.. Many destructed churches,masques…do the same thing happen in America? who the hell said India is a Hindu country? India is secular country, we have a right to follow any religion and even to preach it to public (not by force) just because they preach in some Hindu area RSS will come and kill the pastors….
India has the most weird traditions, just because of western culture influence we were able to avoid them, zero, Sanskrit or any other inventions brought freedom from those wierd traditions..
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Yes bro I agree with today what is condition between child and parent I am not saying india is bad actually the person who live in india and they do some silly thing. Just bcz of them. Today a son live with this family only for property when they took property they leave him just bcz selfishness. Today I see every where without profit no one talk to you if I talk earlier time Mr. Subhas chandar bosh, Bhagat sing they are true indian. Today I see cheating. No manner to talk there child even own parent.,beating, abusing all thing is going on around me
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U have written non sense
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And now Indians are all over the world doing so many highly qualified jobs, its not because of their talents, its because of their welcome, invitation, we should be thankful to them, we go america coz we have plenty of opportunities, and we can work without any domination..look around the world how many americans sponsor for studies, clothing, and for the better living of the people? Are Indians doing same as Americans? but we’ll have so much money in Swizz banks than any other countries..full of corruption and exploitation….
If the same Indians work in India who are now working in america and other Countries, I am damnly sure they cant get much support from government as they are getting in US. If we are great than America, we should have been first in everything or even in the line of competition… stop covering our faults instead let’s fight for a better society….
we compare our country to America because it is a great country, shall we compare our country to Bhutan? let’s not be the tombs who look good outside and ugly inside…don’t hang onto history bro..every one has history, present is important, our future is important…..
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If India would not had been invaded by Mughals, as well as British did not come to India, the Indian culture which is based on spirituality would not have been partially destroyed. And then those hypothetical Indians would have been the true seekers of knowledge in the whole world. If anyone wishes to see true India , just take a look at the lives of the great peoples who shaped India to what is our country today. The Indian culture can give the ultimate knowledge , peace and meaning of life. Not a single true Indian has demoralised people from other religions.
Even though India have such a great culture but the real tragedy is that our ancient books which can give the true meaning to anyone’s life , have been destroyed or their teachings have been misinterpreted.
As India s youth have been misled by movies, shows copied from somewhere else and other many things , so what shall we say when the youths are misled what could we possibly expect from the future generations.
In Indian culture spirituality and science go hand in hand. We are not insulting any other religion or culture. But we just want to tell that Indian culture is of great value.
The moral standards of ancient India were of great heights. So it wil be definately wrong to say that Indian culture is worse than other culture.
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I disagree with this article because it’s unreasonably favorable to Indian culture. In America, we don’t rape our women, or subjugate them. We don’t require them to be subservient to men. Genital mutilation is a crime in America, not so in Indian culture. We also don’t engage in “honor killings”. Indians are more mobile because they prefer to come to America and work. Most Americans have no interest in moving to India and we tolerate Indian culture except for the barbaric customs explain above. About competitiveness, Americans are the leaders of the world. We dominate the Olympics, dominate most sports. We are the innovators, while Indians competitively imitate. Also, about family values, Americans don’t kill their daughters in “honor killings”. We don’t force our kids to live our hermit customs, and kill them if they don’t comply. We don’t subjugate our wives, kill or beat them if they don’t comply.
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Oh! Unlike Americans Indians respect what they have . in America people are shame less. What they have got if Indians stop to working days them. Indian scientist invented zero without which maths was impossible to do. India is bestest place in world. When you say that that we kill our daughters and wife then for your kind information it is banned here too but which country doesn’t have criminals in it. here is the difference between us and you. We believe to live in harmony and peace while American change their surroundings and hurt nature. Even u people call us idiots but in Microsoft most workers are of India and without us your country will be nothing. Also some words of English have been taken by Sanskrit language of India like bazaar and trigno.don’t underestimate us. Answer me if you dare.
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You really have a problem when you’re dealing with rampant misogyny and and call AMERICA ‘shameless’.
In response to the ‘living in harmony’ thing, it’s not necessarily the right philosophy. You can argue about both philosophies all you want, but neither is really right. For example, I personally believe that in order to grow and thrive as a race, humans have to change their environment and move forward.
I agree that Indians are not stupid or dumb by any means at all, they are actually very adaptive to various cultures and ideas, but India has problems that need to be acknowledged.
“some words of English have been taken by Sanskrit language of India like bazaar and trigno”
do people even know how to argue nowadays like seriously
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Oh my God! No, nobody knows to argue today. It’s only you who can do this. “The God of debate”
So according to you, harmony acts as a hurdle in development of an individual xD xD xD. Oops! Sorry I couldn’t control 😛 . Idk what sort of inverse relation will harmony & development have. Ughhhh!
So, is US a perfect nation according to you and there are no problems there. Seriously!? xD xD I’m so sorry.
And talking about the problems in our country, yes they are needed to be acknowledged (as in country it would be) and we are really serious about it & we are even working hard to make India an even better nation, free from every wrong. And we’ll be able to do it indeed very soon.
भारत माता की जय!
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I agree with Rolfe. There is no “harmony and peace” in Indian society when it subjugates and rapes its women as a matter of course, has a shameful caste system, engages in honor killings, and mistreats its women and kids. In India, a woman is reportedly raped every 15 minutes. The statistics on crime against women are even worse: Every 2 minutes, a woman in India is a victim of a crime. This is absolutely disgusting and appalling! This is “harmony and peace” in hell.
Also, quit embellishing the importance of Indians to American workforce. I personally find the Indians I work with and know to be very pleasant people. They are very professional and knowledgeable, but certainly not superior in any way. Most appalling is how I’ve seen many Indians treat American blacks and latinos, as if Indians feel they are superior to those from these groups. Indians practice racism in America, demonstrating a level of ignorance only equalled by the segment of America supporting Donald Trump.
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Both the countries good in there place.afterall everything cannot be perfect
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I found this article to be very insulting to Americans. Many of the comments were also insulting. For someone legitimately trying to understand the cultural differences to promote better communications this article was of no help at all. In fact, reading it and some of the comments, was actually extremely discouraging.
I would never write an article so biased to my culture. You should consider removing it as a service to those from your culture whom don’t share this narrow minded viewpoint.
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Not some words my bro almost all words see examples….
I. Aham
You. Yoouam
We. Wayam
Mother. Mathru
Brother. Bhrathru
Pre. Pra
No. Nee
Almost all English commonly used words are pure Sanskrit
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Indian culture is sht
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I just cant believe what u people are arguing on.its like world war going on here. Really? i mean which one is superior? Cant u just respect each other.we exist because we are human and not because we are indians or americans.what we are learning from history then? We face world wars because of this feeling of supremacy over each other. Just grow up…
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