“”“Incredible India” that is how we proudly brand our nation through advertising media internationally. Indeed, it is truly incredible in a lot of ways and we need to hold back in our fast paced life to make India unequivocally incredible in the view of the world.

India is a culturally diverse country where people of various religions with different traditions, values, beliefs, arts & professions live together like family which makes Indian society popular worldwide and considered as one of the most cultured society.  The majority of this culturally diverse population of India still depends on ‘agriculture’ –its first culture; making India unique in its own way. This holds true as almost all cultural traditions, arts, music has its agrarian inspiration, source and origin, and hence Agriculture is not a mere business but is still the “True Culture of India.”

Agriculture- “The true culture of India.”

Agriculture is a way of life the India people live: with its values, beliefs, behaviors, and symbols that they agree to take rationally and pass it from one generation to the other. It is a culture of working together. Agriculture has a deep sense of oneness and attachment with family, selflessness in relations, which is not seen in other countries. We have a strong agricultural heritage we inherited from our ancestors. Much of this tradition is still passed down today from parents to children and is a unique culture on its own.
India is a farming country, and there’s honesty here. Farmers live and breathe farming along with their family & they love it. Farming has helped us retain our ancestral values. It teaches us to help our neighbours and anyone else who needs support. It includes being sensitive towards their animals and selfless care for them. We learn practices that conserve water and keep the soil fertile. We also learn to stand united with our families irrespective of the unpredictive yield.
As much as farming is about passing on skills to the next generation, it’s even more about passing on the attitudes and attributes that make a farmer adaptable, inventive, and ethical whether it is ploughed by an ox or 50 BHP tractor.

With urbanisation essence of Indian culture is fading away…

After the economic reform in 90’s economic realities has changed, with our high ambitions, we started moving away from collectivism towards individualism which encourages individual happiness and satisfaction. All these brought degenerative perversion of the west. Nowadays’ Indian culture is facing a serious threat as western culture is fast spreading in India and the essence of Indian culture is slowly fading away. The impact of western culture has diluted our rich cultural heritage in metro cities and is now gradually spreading to other parts of our nation.

Change is inevitable to take place in any society and at any time but one should strive to change for good. During the race of modernization, many people started blindly adopting new culture without giving any thought because they find it relevant to their lives & believe that following modern culture makes them cool and are often ashamed to follow our heritage & culture.

…So what’s the status of “culture” of agriculture?

Well, there is no harm in adopting lifestyles from other cultures but forgetting our moral values is something wrong and could have an adverse impact in the long-run. The impact of westernization can be seen in the changing lifestyles of Indians & has given rise to nuclear families which lead to dividing and further re-dividing of land in small parts. Also due to the rapid urbanisation, agricultural lands have been converted into plots and apartments.

Most of us have farm somewhere on our family tree. With fewer of us down on the farm, there’s also fewer that understand our culture. As a consequence of this, the young generation is getting away from agriculture and they are not able to answer the simple question, where the wheat has been produced? Raising many questions such as, are we saying goodbye to Agriculture the true culture & heritage of India?

It is very unfortunate that today’s generation is bending more towards the west and moving away from its cultural values, traditions &their roots. This is not their mistake but the mistake of those who do not enlighten their children about their roots & their rich cultural heritage.

Who is supposed to correct this? We have to correct this, and protect our environment, encourage organic farming, and teach our children about values in life. Native communities have to revive land, water, seeds, and traditional food and farming practices, thereby putting the life back in agriculture. These ideas are not an alternative for us; these are just a way of our life… We all need to work together as Indians.

We have to make all the efforts to preserve our identity through agriculture and get back our diminishing culture.”
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