The Influence of the Western Culture on the
Introduction
Culture is a broad term which has been described by various philosophers since decades. It has been claimed by Raymond Williams to be “…one of the two or three most complicated words in English language” (Williams, 1976). Different definitions of the term, culture may have distinct descriptive ways and criterion to evaluate human activity. It is important to define the broad base of the sophisticated term ‘culture’, in the sense used later in the paper, to narrow down the discussion on our topic.
Culture is a word stemming from a Latin word ‘cultura’ which means to cultivate (Harper, 2008). It is defined by Findley and Rothney as, “systems of symbols and meanings that even their creator contest, which lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another" (Findley & Rothney, 2006). This is the defination of culture I would be using here on. The authors describe culture to be a system of symbols having blurred boundries. The curx however is to see how do we recognize these system of symbols? The answer to this question is provided by Williams who says that culture can be judged or embedded in music, literature,lifestyle, painting and sculputure,theater and film and similar things (Williams, 1976). These dimensions are common to all cultures. In the foreface of the rapid globalization and the interaction in the past, these dimensions of various cultures are often influenced by each other. The following Paper discusses the influence of the dimensions of western culture to the respective dimensions of the subcontinental culture and vice versa. The subcontinential culture, is the culture refering to the South Asian region which includes the modern day India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sirilanka.
The major influene on the subcontinental cultrue came first with the arrival of the British in India in the early 1600’s. The British brought with them the rest of Western culture customs and traditions. The
Culture is a broad term which has been described by various philosophers since decades. It has been claimed by Raymond Williams to be “…one of the two or three most complicated words in English language” (Williams, 1976). Different definitions of the term, culture may have distinct descriptive ways and criterion to evaluate human activity. It is important to define the broad base of the sophisticated term ‘culture’, in the sense used later in the paper, to narrow down the discussion on our topic.
Culture is a word stemming from a Latin word ‘cultura’ which means to cultivate (Harper, 2008). It is defined by Findley and Rothney as, “systems of symbols and meanings that even their creator contest, which lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another" (Findley & Rothney, 2006). This is the defination of culture I would be using here on. The authors describe culture to be a system of symbols having blurred boundries. The curx however is to see how do we recognize these system of symbols? The answer to this question is provided by Williams who says that culture can be judged or embedded in music, literature,lifestyle, painting and sculputure,theater and film and similar things (Williams, 1976). These dimensions are common to all cultures. In the foreface of the rapid globalization and the interaction in the past, these dimensions of various cultures are often influenced by each other. The following Paper discusses the influence of the dimensions of western culture to the respective dimensions of the subcontinental culture and vice versa. The subcontinential culture, is the culture refering to the South Asian region which includes the modern day India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sirilanka.
The major influene on the subcontinental cultrue came first with the arrival of the British in India in the early 1600’s. The British brought with them the rest of Western culture customs and traditions. The
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