CSS Times

What is a culture?

Culture is the features and familiarity of a exacting group of people, encircling language, religion, gastronomy, social habits, music and arts. Culture is the indistinguishable attachment which ties people jointly. It refers to the prototype of human activity. The art, literature, language, and religion of a society represent its culture. Our cultural values and beliefs evident themselves through our lifestyle. Our honourable values embody our culture. The importance of culture lies in its close involvement with the ways of thinking and living. Differences in cultures have led to miscellany in the people from different parts of the world.

Why culture is important?

It is known that humans have a basic psychological need for individual identity, which can be shown through sponsorship in distinct cultural groups. Hence, when a culture’s values, attitudes, and language become extinct, the result is a diminished sense of pride, dignity, and self-worth.

Culture is just about everything. The languages we speak, the way we dress, how we behave, the tools we use, the stories we listen to, how we are taught and raised. It determines our past, present and future.

So basically, culture is as old as the human empire itself and it determines and examines our very roots which demonstrates to which group and civilization we belong to.

How the dominant culture influences the weaker one.

Overriding culture is the one which overrides the main or aboriginal culture and its norms within a particular, social and political entity. In literary terms this occurrence is described as the post colonial complex, in which the culture of ruling class become dominant and the native becomes the lesser inferior. A culture is scrawny when its beliefs, behavioural rules, traditions, and sacraments are not apparent to its members or there is incongruence between stated values and conduct. This can happen for a variety of reasons. With no knowledge of what the association stands for or how things are actually done (rather than how policy indicates things should be done), weak cultures work against the sensation of an organization.

When a people spends certain amount of time outside of their relevant cultural atmosphere, their outlook  and the thoughtfulness of a native culture changes, because culture is something which you have to espouse when you are living in a particular country. Every country has its own cultural norms, traditions and ethical values.

The influence of Indian culture on Pakistan.

There is a long long history between Pakistan and India to begin with, and one would not like to delve into it gratuitously. As Pakistan and India used to be a one big subcontinent in which the people of nearly every religion lived together in a same native soil. Living in the same environment also comes with adopting each other’s tribal and cultural norms and traditions. Since Indians were in mainstream in subcontinent and the government itself belongs to them that is why Indian culture profoundly dominates the other weaker cultures, which later happen to be the Pakistani culture. Pakistani culture is deeply implanted and largely opinionated by rather dominant ethnicity; like America and India at the most.

The superior cultures are not actually superior in themselves but rather it is mainly the conclusion of our own accepted wisdom and reception. The thing is we have made up our minds as a complex and inferior civilization which needs to be dominated by others. As a result, our culture has become the Hybrid culture, means it is now the grouping of Pakistani, Indian and many other cultures altogether.

Media have a monstrous power nowadays. Through it any culture and community can widespread the propaganda of their own and very slowly and discreetly the other civilizations are overwhelming us and we aren’t even realizing it.

This starts very shrewdly through cartoons which children watch, as a first step to make them duplicate the language, customs and values of any other culture but their own. People will watch what the authorities and the media will make them watch. Wars today are not fought by canons, swords and guns but rather through media and the resources, especially by influencing the other cultures.

Pakistani film industry miserably is also imitating and bootlegging the conventional patterns of Indian filmmaking. Take for example the must inclusion of item song, the amorous dances between couples, a must sad song and also a useless action which doesn’t make sense at all. Our exalted actors and filmmakers are going to Bollywood and Hollywood because they think and not only they but we’ve also come to think that Superior cultures’ everything is better than ours. I am not against movies but I think that every community should make films based on their and their very own concepts without stealing anything from any source, which should reflect the gorgeous peep of one’s native culture.

How to cope up with the indigenous culture without any foreign influence?

Well, every culture is the very individuality of one’s country and community. The dominant Indian and other cultures have that much entrenched in us that it is almost impossible to obliterate the prejudices of superior culture. We can however find the ways to trim down its influences upon us slowly and gradually. Well, what did they say, you cannot make heaven overnight.

If every one of us now promises and make up our mind then no nation can dominate us. Allah has made us that strong, if only one also believe in that.