Culture: The Soul Of a Nation

 Before proceeding further I want to clarify the the topic Culture: The Soul Of a Nation. By saying culture the soul it means that it is some thing essential for a social setup or in fact for a nation. Soul meant the essence, the vitality, the animating center of anything. In a person Soul defines what he is, what inevitably affects a person's decisions and behaviors. Even a nation is not just an aggregation of isolated individuals; it is a collective entity with a distinctive identity and values its soul. And no doubt The term "culture," originally meant the cultivation of the soul or mind. The word culture has many different connotations. For some it refers to an appreciation of good literature, music, art, and food. For a biologist, it is likely to be a colony of bacteria or other microorganisms growing in a nutrient medium in a laboratory Petri dish. However, for anthropologists and other behavioral scientists, culture is the full range of learned human behavior patterns. The term was first used in this way by the pioneer English Anthropologist Edward B. Tylor who said that culture is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society."

The roots of culture are very deep in the social setup of a nation or society. In point of fact it can be said that culture is one of the important pillar on which the whole society erects. These cultural values manage the accomplishments of people. Culture relates to the mental and ideological concerns. In fact a group of people becomes a nation when they have a common ethnic origin, culture, historical tradition, and language or simply the culture. Culture is so important that it in fact has an influence over the internal and external issues of a nation. Culture is a powerful human tool for survival, but it is a fragile phenomenon. Our written languages, governments, buildings, and other man-made things are merely the products of culture. Nations may parish but culture being a soul of nation remains alive in the shape of broken pots and other artifacts.

we see around us are all due to the culture. The excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities. Culture set the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning. Culture is the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes a nation.

The whole daily route of an individual being the member of a particular society is culture. The way he gets up, wash his hands, comb his hair, his driving style, his mode of communication and interacting people all is control by culture. According to Aristotle man is a social animal who cannot live alone and thus Culture is group-specific behavior that is acquired by humans. Culture reside in the heart and soul of nation so the people who are passionate about their nation show off its cultural heritages and always try to transmit it to their next generation by indoctrination. Even when a child of three years speak maa, paa , or baa this is also culture which he inherited from his parents this small fry also knows that embracing means love and do aware of fierceness. So it can be said that culture is in the genes of all species and the nation’s rich tradition remains popular among the new and older generations. Those who share culture do so because they acquired it as they were raised by parents and other family members who have it.

Culture fulfill the basic needs of a society and its the matter of fact that when ever some body tries to press the cultural values the whole society revolt against it because it is quite clear that until and unless culture is alive the nation retains its identity. Even differences of cultures of two societies when clash leads to war and stronger one overpowers the other to establish own culture that way it broadens its culture. An apparent example we have is western culture spread in most part of the world. Every nation’s cultural traditions carry many centuries of national experience and historical memory. Being a reflection of the soul of the nation, culture is the manifestation of that society.

Culture is the greatest treasure of mankind and the road leading to the realm of justice. The social horizon would be seriously impoverished without the presence of artistic and cultural expressions. One of the greatest developments of the human species is to have acknowledged diversity as an inalienable right. Dialogue and coexistence would be impossible without that recognition. Culture, therefore, gives meaning to life and to the capacity of existing in communities and of participating in collective creation.

Cultural traditions distinguish a specific nation. When people speak of Italian, Chinese, or Japanese culture, they are referring to the shared language, traditions, and beliefs that set each of these peoples apart from others. While all cultures have these have developed their own specific ways of carrying out or expressing them. Culture is important for a nation because it has continuously evolving products of people interacting with each other. Culture is the behavioral system of a nation. It is the culture which regulates the social actions. It is a relative quantity scattered all around in shape of norms, values, paintings, performing arts, dance, film, music, festivals, entertainment, fiction, sports, politics and many more.

Study of beginning of man's group life indicates that human interaction cannot take place without establishing some sort of mechanism or system based on a set of principals, which explains human behavior. This mechanism is the culture which helps to understand the pattern of a particular nation. The culture provides a frame work within which the members of a community are expected to behave. The culture in fact set the rule of the game, which determine the relationship of the interacting individuals.

Culture is process to live in group. Each nation evolves its own culture. Culture is a process for identity of living creatures and cultural evolution raises the identity of society, benefit goes to its individuals. Culture differentiates from group to group though major part remains same as human culture to differentiate from other species. Culture gives identity to the nation. Culture broadens or establishes the national status of a particular group. Culture develops beliefs, faith, practices, customs, way to live, art, intelligence, language, food habits, and economy etc; Cultural growth gave identity to the societies that named,Christian or Muslim or Hindu or Jewish or Buddhist etc; have different cultures. So when we come across art, customs etc; we identify what is their culture or which religion they belong. Cultural helps in community growth. Mohandas Gandhi rightly said that:

“A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people” {Mohandas Gandhi}