It is often said that India is a subcontinent of nationalities, rightly so because India is plural in every way possible. Every State is very distinct from the other in terms of food habits, agricultural and social practices, language, attire and whatnot but they are all joined through a hinge of common ethos.
The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, formulated by UNGA in 2015, specifically target the environment and other social indicators which are automatically cared for in our environment-friendly and socially diverse festivals and ways. Naturally, India has been blessed with various geographical features, and this variation influences the seasonal variety.
Music For All Seasons
An interesting thing to observe in our country is the peculiarities these seasons bring and are celebrated in the form of folk songs and the wide variety of music which is made available to the common people is in itself a different genre. Indian classical music, with its exquisite refinement, honed over centuries, had ragas for six seasons and in some cases, not only seasons, there are set time slots to sing these ragas too.
For instance, in North India, the three Ragas to be rendered specifically are Basant, Bahar and Hindol. In the same fashion, Raga Vasanta is associated with spring, some thumris are sung around Holi in the month of March, Chaitis for the month of Chaitra or April, Kajris mark the onset of monsoon and are sung around June/July and so on.
Harvest Season
The other factor behind observing these festivals is that the festivals in India trace their genesis to the seasons and are woven in accordance with them. For example, festivals like Baisakhi in Punjab, Pongal in Tamil Nadu and Bihu in Assam are celebrated to mark the harvest season.
The intent behind these festivals is to ask for prosperity and blessings from the Nature Goddess before the harvest of these seasonal crops begins. Food is an important component required to sustain life and as per the Hindu way of life, it is believed that “As you eat food, so will be your mind.” Thus the food habits in our traditional societies got built around seasonal variation.
Food eaten in the pre-season festival prepares our body for the season to come. This helps in the holistic growth of the body and nourishment of the mind. So, overall health, as a result of these food habits, is maintained.
In India, worshipping Mother Nature and maintaining its sanctity is an age-old practice. Our forefathers considered cultivating such sustainable practices in the form of rituals and festivals to be an astute way of popularising it amongst masses. For instance, festivals like Teej in North and West India and Aadi Peruku in Tamil Nadu are specifically celebrated by women and mark the onset of monsoon and signify holiness of water. These festivals pay tribute to water’s life-sustaining properties. Thus, pay huge importance towards maintaining the cleanliness in our water bodies.
Worshippers of Wealth
Apart from these life-sustaining implications of festivals in ancient Bharat, every festival brings livelihood to many and positively affects the economy. Small-scale industries and cottage industries’ contribution to the total industrial output in India is nearly 40 per cent.
This is why when a festival arrives, we see a wide array of festive products hitting the market and giving impetus to the circulation of money within the economy. Production of ethnic, traditional décor whose making requires skill and art provides self-employment to every hand in an artistic way, rejoicing not just the economic needs of artisans but also the artistic needs of the buyer.
Present dispensation’s clarion call to popularise locally made items will immensely help the unorganised sector of the economy that contributes massively in generating revenue and fulfilling socialist ethics in the right way. It’s important to note that the bullish trend of the stock market, seen during Diwali, reinstates the faith that, as a society, Hindus have been worshippers of wealth in the form of Goddess Lakshmi.
Celebrating Womanhood
Indian festivals are an amalgamation of not just different cultures but also health, food and economy. These factors are the biggest testimony of shared brotherhood. The folklores popularised over ages and generations are a way to protect these customs and traditions which form as the backbone of our cultural and social mores. Our women have always been at the helm of forming these customs.
Raja Parba; a three day festival, which is celebrated in the coastal State of Odisha, is a very poignant example of celebrating womanhood through conserving nature’s bounty. The term ‘Rajah’ came from the Sanskrit word ‘Rajas’, which means menstruation. When a woman menstruates, she is called ‘Rajaswala’ or a menstruating woman. In medieval times, the festival became more popular as an agricultural worship of Mother Earth to prepare Mother Earth for the upcoming crop season.
Such forward-looking and libertarian practices make India’s festivals and way of life its biggest soft power because with approximately 32 million Indians residing outside India, the Indian diaspora is one of the world’s largest overseas diaspora. There can be no better medium to disseminate India’s message of ‘Vaisudhaiva Kutumbakam’ to the world than its festivals and culturally synced practices.
Understanding Sanatana Dharma
Over the last decades, it is a matter of concern the kind of alienation and disdain these customs and traditions have seen from their people. Due to increased Western influence, it has become imperative for all of us, both young and old, to be an advocate for our cultural practices and duties. People must be educated and persuaded to learn the science that exists behind these rituals and festivals.
Hinduism in Sanskrit is known as Sanatana Dharma and Sanatana means eternal, which has no beginning or end. It is a popular belief that Hinduism is one of the oldest and thriving civilisations. Lastly, more and more people should be encouraged to uphold their belief in these ancient practices instead of criticising and dumping it as orthodox and regressive. To sum it up, in the words of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, “Hinduism is not just a religion but a way of life.
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