South Asian Cultures

The history of South Asian tradition extends to well before Christianity, empirically quantifying the Indus Valley Civilization as the herald of the formation of an indigenous method of cultural development. Two thousand years later, South Asian cultures still stand out among those of different civilizations. The era of globalization and mass communication have raised many questions as to whether these cultures will defy hybridity and remain independent, or even whether they will withstand the increasingly adamant hegemony of modernization. In South Asian society, modernization has in fact generated a bifurcation between those who still fervently subscribe to indigenous culture and tradition, and those who find more comfort in a form of hybrid existence with modernity. This bifurcation can also be quantified along the lines of urban-rural divides and the politics of centre-periphery. Even so, this cultural hybridity is seen to strain greatly under the pressure of a moral imperative to prioritize one’s own culture over another’s. The circumstances which therefore render cultural hybridity ineffective in South Asia are instances where indigenous traditions do not allow any amendment or contemporaneous adaptation.