Culture, as we know, is way of life. Every community has it's own culture. And it has always been there ever since the human being came on this planet. As the man evolved through the ages, culture also evolved, developed and took new shapes with respect to time and space. Though, the evolution of Indian culture was parallel to the same phenomena in the other communities of the world, it's development was unique in some aspects. So is its current shape.

The uniqueness of Indian culture lies in its geographical diversities, natural wealth, vast population and people's attitude among other things. There are few countries, which have extreme climatic conditions like India has. When people in the northern parts of country would be shivering with chilling cold one can find people in the south bare feet.

Not surprising, Indian woolen garments are as rich as are the cotton and silk. M. J. Harskovitz said, " culture is man-made part of environment" and India tells he was correct.

Talking about natural wealth of India, one can only say nature was biased in favor of this part of the world while endowing its blessings. Not surprising, the world's latest longing for alternative medicines like ayurvedic/ herbal, Reiki and homeopathy has been grandmother's recipe in India for ages. The impact of natural wealth on Indian culture is not confined to medicine only, it also has great impact on economic activities, food pattern, fashion, trends and style of the people. While for the people in the coastal Kerala or on the eastern coast in Andhra, marine life is the mainstay of their economic life, the people of Himachal or for that matter Kashmir depend on apple and tourists to great extent for their livelihood. Food pattern of Indians is as varied as their place of habitation. One can relish the fish curry and rice with same devour in the coastal parts as one can enjoy the vegetarian spicy gravy in the plains of country.

What to talk about people's fashion of a nation whose mythology, history and contemporary world of society is replete with the beauty tales around which there is a world in itself which exists. It was Indian natural henna, which gave the world the concept of body decoration, the hair shampoo and body tattoos. The story goes that Indian royal families used to take bath in rose petal for special occasions. It's common knowledge that today rose petal's extracts are used for variety of cosmetics products. Indian people's sense of ornamentation is so versatile in approach and so rich in content that it's next to impossible to explain in statements. One can just observe, experience and participate to have a feel of it. Still exquisite sense of dressing and ornamentation of tribal India remains out of reach of modern and developed world. But now, thanks to more aware fashion makers dedicated to enrich the world of fashion, they are also not only finding ways in but also giving new look to the industry.

People of India are as diverse as it can get. In the vast stretches of the country side one will not have to travel more than twenty five miles to meet with the people of different social up bringing, different occupation, different life style with different tongues and opinion of the world. Sometimes one wonders how these people are so well knit together when they hardly share physical or spiritual aspects of culture with one another. It's very difficult to answer this question but perhaps the rockiest bond between these people is the nationality. The sense of belonging to one nation, the shared history, the common legacy, the common national movement and more than any thing else, the cohabitation for ages has kept them under oneness, the Indianness.

Indians life style and attitude is same as their other aspects of culture. Diverse in nature, rich in content, depth in making, charming in holding and mesmerizing in understanding. One can find people in tribal region with their conservative beliefs, customs and rituals living in isolation, oblivious of their modern counterparts, who are as catholic in their beliefs, attitude towards life and world opinion as people of any part of the world. Indian social life, even today, transcends the vast span of time and space. Monogamy, polygamy and polygyny, all exist in this marvelous part of the world. One can find the dowry system prevalent amongst the modern and the most sophisticated societies of the country as well as the bride-price in the aboriginal regions habited by diverse tribal communities.

Even brief description of Indian culture would be incomplete without mention of religious belief of the people. Though four-fifth of the population is lived by Hindus, no religion of the world-be it Islam, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh or Christian- can claim to be untouched by India. Crores of deities under different hierarchies are prayed by millions of people every day accompanied by diverse rituals.

Indian's belief in astrology is, even today, as firm as it was ages ago. Tantra -mantra (chanting of Vedic hymns and use of symbolic celestial instruments) by Sadhus (saints) can be seen across the country, which is supposed to bring desired results and ward off the evils. Their belief in astrology gets substantiated when, today we see the whole world striving very hard to establish it as stream of science.

The huge treasure of Indian arts and literature has always been matter of research around the world. The folk music in the countryside is as exhilarating as enchanting is the modern and ancient classical music which is so rich in variety that one wonders how many Gharanas (houses) and sub-gharanas Indian music has.

So, to conclude, Indian culture is what E.B.Taylor said about culture in general i.e., "culture is that complex whole which includes art, literature, music, religion and any other beliefs, customs and rituals of the society."