Culture

I have been getting lot of questions in my mind about culture. What is a culture? Is it a feeling felt by a group of people. What can we identify specifically as Indian culture? Is it is the food habits? In that case India has innumerable variety. what about language? Again we have so many. When I was much younger I used to think the temples are the connecting thread as Rameshwaram in south and Kasi in north plays a big role in connecting North Indians and South Indians. But I know now it is just Hindu culture and India is made up of people of other major religions. Is it race which has a specific culture. But we are told that we have Aryan and Dravidian Race and there are different religions within these two races. So my confusion continues.
According to Anand there is nothing which can be specifically called as a culture as it keeps on changing and we get assimilated over the periods of years and years of absorbing and incorporating many things which we call as our culture.
Till the period of British invasion, where the Britishers kept a strict distance between the rulers and the ruled, I think all the other conquerors by and large merged with the local culture(?)and mixed what ever their habits(?) with the local way of life and a new culture(?) emerged.
On a lighter note I can say that when I was much younger while in punjab I was sort of surprised that they did not have any specific marriage sign. like what we south indians have the 'thali' or mangal sutra. when we asked some one he said it is the lipstic and being modern, the girls have also started using it which is strictly to be used by married ladies. This evoked a great laughter among us and used to be one of my anectodes of Jullundar days to who so ever cared to listen for many years.
But now I am at a loss. Is mangal sutra the real symbol of marriage. But many don't wear it in their daily life any more and use it only for some special occasion! it does not make me raise by eyebrows any more to see many not wearing it. Girls /Women go for work in westernised outfit to office and feel that, t his does not gel.
So I can see during my life time itself some thing which I thought was a symbol of culture, no more seems that it is.(Again another question to myself does culture need any symbol?)
Incidentally in vedic period there was no 'thali' and even today until a man and woman take the 'sapta padi' (seven steps) around the fire together, according to hindu marriage Act they are not considered as man and wife legally . The significance of it being any two people taking seven steps together is considered as friends. So basically according to vedic rites a husband and wife is primarily considered as friends.( This concept I simply love very much)
Well I have digressed and am still wondering what is culture? Especially when hue and cry is being made about tamil culture by the self proclaimed guardians of tamil culture in the name of protecting it, but in turn encouraging barbarism.( I am referring to the Kushboo issue)
Like hinduism I think culture is also a way of life, which keeps on changing from time to time and the feeling of good ness we get when we live in a certain way without affecting the sensibilities of others may be called as culutre. When a group of people live in a similar way is this the culture?
A simple thing like cake cutting in a wedding can become a ritual after some years and in a thali tying, tamil wedding it would become a part which no one would realize was borrowed from western culture say some hundred years from now. This may be a trivial thing but that is how culture develops I feel.
So we should not look upon others way of living from an elevated platform and say our way is the best. Everything is a way of life I suppose.