SALIENT FEATURES OF INDIAN SOCIETY

Indian society is known for its ability of tolerance and acceptance, and social cohesion making it unique in sustaining its culture. The importance of fraternity enshrined in the Preamble of the constitution makes it a duty of every citizen.
Indian society is extensively diverse in cultural and regional aspects and it is pertinent that it is posited in each individual the realization of ideas and objectives in the Preamble concerning every other individual.
India from ancient times has thrived to create a nationality that is neither governed by universalism nor by exclusivity to its interest groups. The multi-cultural conundrum is a salient feature of Indian society that has been a boon and a bane over the history of the country.

SALIENT FEATURES OF INDIA:
• Multi-Ethnic Society
• Multi-Lingual Society
• Multi-Class Society
• Patriarchal Society
• Unity In Diversity
• Tribes
• Family
• Kinship System
• Balance between spiritualism and materialism
• Balance between Individualism and collectivism
• Co-existence of traditionalism and modernity

The multi-ethnic Indian society
Multi-ethnicity is a major salient feature of Indian society. An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other, usually based on a common language or dialect, history, society, culture, or nation.
A society with the co-existence of a wide variety of racial groups is a Multi-ethnic society. India is home to almost multiple racial profiles like Nordic, Dinaric, Proto-Australoid, Mongolian, etc.
Multilingualism- salient feature of Indian society
India is home to many native languages, and it is also common that people to speak and understand more than one language or dialect, which can entail the use of different scripts as well.
India’s 2011 census documents that 121 languages are spoken as mother tongues, which is defined as the first lan¬guage a person learns and uses.
Of these languages, the Constitution of India recognizes twenty-two of them as official or “scheduled” languages. Articles 344(1) and 351 of the Constitution of India, titled the Eighth Schedule, recognize the following languages as official languages of the states of India:
• Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.
Six languages also hold the title of classical languages (Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Sanskrit, Tamil, and Telugu), which are determined to have a history of recorded use for more than 1,500 years and a rich body of literature.
Multi-religious society
India is a cradle of world religions whose ancestors have preached and practiced almost all major religions of the world giving rise to worldly beliefs, practices, rites, rituals, ceremonies, and institutions.
The co-existence of all the religions and variety of faiths has been a shining example of religious pluralism and tolerance.
• The principle of secularism despite several conflicts and riots has been upheld by our citizens time and again.
• Indian Constitution has rightly reflected the idea of multi religions. It states that “every citizen has a right to freely practice, preach, profess and propagate any religion or faith”.
• A secular state has been defined as a “state in which all religions and citizens irrespective of their faith would be treated impartially”.
• Apart from the major religions, several tribal religions are coexisting in Indian society.
UNITY IN DIVERSITY:
“Unity in Diversity” is a phrase implying unity among people with diverse cultural, religious, and other demographic differences. It denotes the sense of oneness and we-ness .In India, people of different religions have continued to respect the ideals and values of people of other religions, and hence, India has always stood up as an integrated nation ready to put its arms around everybody in this world.