 Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values,

attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations,

concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of
people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.
 A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and
symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed
along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.
 Culture is symbolic communication, some of its symbols include a group's skills,
knowledge, attitudes, values, and motives; the meanings of the symbols are learned and
deliberately perpetuated in a society through its institutions.
 Culture is a collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one
group or category of people from another
 Each culture has specific set of symbols that are words, gestures, pictures, or objects
and carry a particular meaning which is only recognized by those who share a particular
culture. New symbols easily develop, old ones disappear; symbols from one particular
group are regularly copied by others. This is why symbols represent the outermost layer
of a culture.
 The core of a culture is formed by values and they are broad tendencies for preferences
of certain state of affairs to others (good-evil, right-wrong, natural-unnatural). Many
values remain unconscious to those who hold them, therefore they often cannot be
discussed, nor can they be directly observed by others. Values can only be inferred from
the way people act under different circumstances.

 Methue Arnold- Civilization is the humanization of a man in society.

 Jhonson- Civilization is the condition of life appose to barbarian.
 W. Green- A culture becomes civilization only when it possesses written language,
science, philosophy, a specialized division of labour and a complex technology.
 Civilization is described as a process of civilizing or developing the state of human
society, to the extent that the culture, industry, technology, government, etc. reaches
the maximum level.
 The term ‘civilization’ talks about adopting better ways of living, and making best
possible use of nature’s resources, so as to satisfy the needs of the group of people.
 It stresses on systematising society into various groups that work collectively and
constantly to improve the quality of life, regarding food, education, dress,
communication, transportation, and the like.

Difference between Culture and Civilization:

 Firstly, civilization in theory is bigger than culture in which an entire civilization can
encompass one single unit of culture.
 Civilization is a bigger unit than culture because it is a complex aggregate of the society
that dwells within a certain area, along with its forms of government, norms, and even
culture. Thus, culture is just a spec or a portion of an entire civilization.
 A culture ordinarily exists within a civilization. In this regard, each civilization can
contain not only one but several cultures. Comparing culture and civilization is like
showing the difference between language and the country to which it is being used.
 Culture can exist in itself whereas civilization cannot be called a civilization if it does not
possess a certain culture. It’s just like asking how a nation can exist on its own without
the use of a medium of communication. Hence, a civilization will become empty if it
does not have its culture, no matter how little it is.
 Culture can be something that is tangible and it can also be something that isn’t. Culture
can become a physical material if it is a product of the beliefs, customs and practices of
a certain people with a definite culture. But a civilization is something that can be seen
as a whole and it is more or less tangible although its basic components, like culture, can
be immaterial.
 Culture can be learned and in the same manner it can also be transmitted from one
generation to the next. Using a medium of speech and communication, it is possible for
a certain type of culture to evolve and even be inherited by another group of people. On
the other hand, civilization cannot be transferred by mere language alone. Because of
its complexity and magnitude, you need to transfer all of the raw aggregates of a
civilization for it to be entirely passed on. It just grows, degrades and may eventually
end if all of its subunits will fail.
 Culture is the characteristics of a people: the sum total of ways of living built up by a
group of human beings, transmitted from one generation to another. Culture is
manifested in human artifacts (An artifact is any object made or modified by a human
culture, and later recovered by an archaeological endeavor) and activities such as music,
literature, lifestyle, food, painting and sculpture, theater and film.
 A civilization is a society in an advanced state of social development (e.g., with complex
legal and political and religious organizations). In short, civilization is and advance state
of human society --- the sum of cultures, science, industry, and government. So, you can
have several cultures in one
 Culture is spiritual advancement, hence internal and civilization is physical
advancement, hence is external.
 Culture relates to religious beliefs, whereas civilization is related to social and economic
conditions.

Characteristics of Indian Culture & Civilization:

 Being an Oriental ancient civilization, India has a history of 5000 years; its culture,
extensive, profound and mysterious, has made immeasurable contributions to the world
progress and civilization.
 According to VA Smith, the most essential fundamental Indian unity rests upon the fact
that diverse people of India have developed a peculiar type of culture or civilization
utterly different from any other type of the world.
 Its distinct characteristics and personalities have made scholars and experts of academia
today excited and confused, arousing their interest in probing the mysteries inside.
 Religiosity- India is a religious country, and almost all the people sincerely believe in
religion.
 Religion touches every corner of the Indian society and the soul of all the ordinary
people.
 Maintains tight and close links with Indian society, politics, economy, military, art and
literature.

 Indian people witness the great and irresistible pacts imposed by religion on themselves
in every aspect of life.
 The language, literature, art, music, dance and sculpture of India are all centered on
religion, both in form and content.
 Religion has been fully integrated into Indian culture and there will be no Indian culture
without religion.

 Diversity- Diversity stands out as one of the most prominent characteristics of the Indian
cultural system; within this system, there are different cultural elements such as
Hellenic culture, Islamic culture, Persian culture, English culture and Chinese culture.
 The reason for this diversity is multifaceted and the most important factor is the alien
cultures brought to India by invaders.
 For example, the Indian Islamic culture was launched after Babur defeated Sultan
Ibrahim Lodi, the ruler of Delhi, in 1526 and founded the Mogul empire; the
introduction of English culture into India was completed after the British colonists
invaded India and imposed colonial rule on it, which lasted for 200 years.

 Even in Indian pure vernacular cultures, there are different types of vernacular cultures
with different characteristics resulting from varying periods, conditions and
environments for subsistence and development.
 They include Vedic culture, Aryan culture, Dravidian culture, Brahmanic culture, Marathi
culture, Punjabi culture, Assamese culture, if defined by time period and linguistic area.;
they include Brahmanic culture, Buddhist culture, Indian Islamic culture, Jain culture,
Christian culture, Sikh culture and Bahai culture that rose in the modern times, if
defined by religious sects.
 It is the diversity of Indian culture that exhibits its antiquity, brilliance and glory, making
it without parallel in the whole world.

 Inclusiveness- Inclusiveness is another salient characteristic of Indian culture that

distinguishes it from other cultures.
 Of all kinds of local cultures, linguistic cultures and religious cultures of India contains a
variety of elements apart from alien cultures.
 India beyond all doubt possesses a deep underlying fundamental unity that transcends
the innumerable diversities of blood, colour, language, dress, manners and sects.
 ‘Nonviolent’ Thinking in Indian Cultural Values- Nonviolence is the goal and state the
Indian cultural values seek to achieve.
 According to Vedanta philosophy, everything in the world is self deriving from Self.
 So it should be friendly and equally disposed to others.

 Everything’s true nature is divine and has the true, good and beautiful moral conduct, so
people should be kind to and love each other.
 Moreover, the spirit of friendliness and love ought to be extended to beasts and birds,
flowers and plants.
 Thus, killing is forbidden.

 Philosophy- Indian philosophy comprises the philosophical traditions of the Indian

subcontinent.
 There are six schools of orthodox Hindu philosophy—Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya,
Yoga, Mīmāṃsā and Vedanta—and four heterodox schools—Jain, Buddhist, Ājīvika and
Cārvāka – last two are also schools of Hinduism.
 However, there are other methods of classification; Vidyaranya for instance identifies
sixteen schools of Indian philosophy by including those that belong to the Śaiva and
Raseśvara traditions.

 Since medieval India schools of Indian philosophical thought have been classified by the
Brahmanical tradition as either orthodox or non-orthodox (āstika or nāstika), depending
on whether they regard the Vedas as an infallible source of knowledge.
 The main schools of Indian philosophy were formalised chiefly between 1000 BCE to the
early centuries of the Common Era.
 Competition and integration between the various schools was intense during their
formative years, especially between 800 BCE and 200 CE; some schools like Jainism,
Buddhism, Śaiva and Advaita Vedanta survived, but others, like Samkhya and Ājīvika, did
not; they were either assimilated or went extinct.