CULTURAL DIVERSITY

India is a remarkably complex country. Throughout its several millennia of history, its many kingdoms, empires, invasions and trading contacts have created unparalleled cultural diversity. For example, its people speak 325 languages that are further divided into more than two thousand distinct dialects and twenty-five separate scripts. Each region has a pronounced individual character: usually its own social and ethnic composition, language, climate, geography, agriculture and industry. A recent government anthropological survey documents 80,000 separate subcultures. Each community has a specific regional mythology and belief system that are unique to that locality. Every town and village has its own names for the gods and goddesses worshipped within it. Although in the past several centuries theologians have identified the similarities of many of these individual deities and have encouraged that they be called by common names, such as Rama or Durga, regional personalities still exist.

With all of these individual perceptions and traditions, it is easy to understand why definitions of Hinduism have baffled so many. In fact, Hinduism is not one codified religion, but is a compilation of hundreds, perhaps thousands of smaller belief systems. In stating that the religion incorporates thousands or millions of gods being worshipped, the statement refers to the entire country, not individual beliefs. In practice each Hindu worships those few deities that he or she believes directly influences his or her life.