Indians, what do you consider indian culture to be specifically?

Don’t be a coconut lol

I'm indian muslim. I wear indian clothes some times, at weddings and eat indian food but i dont consider myself to be cultural. But i want to be. i feel like my upbringing has been so focused around religion that i feel isolated from my culture i guess. Idk if it sounds right but I just want to be more deeply connected to my roots. Those of you who consider yourself to be cultural, what makes you feel that way? Is it the surface such as clothes and food that make you feel cultural or something else?

clothes, film, music and food yeah pretty much. are you talking about the north? it is very different to the south so i'm probably not one to talk since people in the north have different customs and cuisines. loool i'm so westernised i get backlash from my community but i would still consider myself to be somewhat connected to my culture. this probably sounds deeper than i want it to be but to really experience culture it's nice to appreciate the historical influences on art. like knowing the context and how things have changed.

I want to read more indian literature, just understand my roots more. art and literautre i agree is one way of connecting.

I'm gujurati so no.. not north india just Indian culture in genneral. Well thats what i mean idk anything about Indian culture.

Sri Lankans tend to equate India to Hinduism so most of Indian Muslim culture is not considered "Indian". Furthermore the culture of South India tends to fall more within Hindu Nationalism (the entire political spectrum of Sri Lanka is Hindu Nationalist). The young people do not watch Bollywood furthermore. Religion has always been about ethnoreligious groups and therefore nothing much has changed there - notably we never really think about Pakistan/Bangladesh as being Indian due to their Islamic culture.

??? Sri Lanka is Buddhist, most of the parties are based on Sinhala nationalism and Buddhist nationalism, Hinduism is a small minority. Get your facts straight, you’re spouting rubbish. This is coming from a Sri Lankan.

Are you Christain by any chance? Hindu Nationalism is about native philosophies and Buddhism is included a native philsophy - because Sri Lanka is completely within Hindu Nationalism politically, the concept of segregating politics into a "Hindu Nationalist" party doesn't exist really; in Sri Lanka you don't have the concept of Hindu Nationalism because the entire political spectrum of Sri Lanka fits within HIndu Nationalism, but both the right-wing and left-wing support the idea of native Indian culture - even the leaders of the nationalist parties will visit Indian Hindu shirines.

Are you Christain by any chance? Hindu Nationalism is about native philosophies and Buddhism is included a native philsophy - because Sri Lanka is completely within Hindu Nationalism politically, the concept of segregating politics into a "Hindu Nationalist" party doesn't exist really; in Sri Lanka you don't have the concept of Hindu Nationalism because the entire political spectrum of Sri Lanka fits within HIndu Nationalism, but both the right-wing and left-wing support the idea of native Indian culture - even the leaders of the nationalist parties will visit Indian Hindu shirines.

I don’t think most Buddhists like the term Hindu nationalism though as it belittles Buddhism as just a subsection of Hinduism when it is a fully fledged religion which takes a lot of influences from the folk religions of South India (which is what people now lump together as Hinduism). I think Buddhists prefer calling it Buddhist nationalism which includes a lot of respect for the Hindu religious practices of Sri Lankan Tamils (which are again mainly folk religions). Although their aims are the same as the Hindu nationalists in India and they get on well with them, they don’t like this term and they don’t openly say the words Hindu nationalism.

Yeah I am, what does that have to do with it? Sri Lanka is a country of multiple religions, trying to steer the country into one homogenised religious identity is never going to work, it will just lead to more tensions. Christians and Muslims aren’t somehow non-Lankans because they follow a ‘foreign religion’- people need to realise that religions are beliefs and not culture. I’d say the only real difference between a Sri Lankan Hindu and Buddhist and Christian is what they believe. We still eat the same food, wear the same clothes, study at the same schools mostly, have similar cultural traditions, and talk to each other. This idea that Christians are foreign is ridiculous and the aim of any sort of Hindu nationalism is to cast aside Christians and Muslims as foreigners.

Because there are only two types of people that get irate on the internet whenever a progressive Sri Lankan speaks - religious foreigners and light skinned "South Indians".

Firstly, I’m not a foreigner in any way, I’m just as Tamil as you are. Secondly, how are you being progressive by trying to sideline minority religions and trying to make Sri Lanka a Hindu nationalist country? Sri Lanka should be pluralist and secular, that’s what real progressive countries are. And what does skin colour have to do with politics? I’m genuinely curious.

I've never met a Christian Sri Lankan Tamil and I've even lived in Sri Lanka for several months. I support a Hindu-Buddhist Sri Lanka, and a Hinduvta relationship with India. I don't consider light skinned people to be Sri Lankan and/or South Indian, and I'd rather not have one of these people in a position of power - they pay too much attention to language and not enough attention to race.

Christians make up about 8% of Sri Lanka and they are quite common in both Tamil and Sinhalese groups. If you haven’t met one then clearly you’ve just been avoiding them. And Sri Lankans can have plenty of different skin colours, both dark and light. For example Mahinda is lighter skinned than mathri sirisena (although neither are that light) and they’re both considered Sri Lankan regardless of colour. It’s interesting that you dislike people being attracted to lighter skin but you’re okay with voting against a politician purely because of their skin colour. Who’s the real colourist here?

% Christians per region of Sri Lanka in the 2011 census.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Christentum_in_Sri_Lanka_2012.svg/1804px-Christentum_in_Sri_Lanka_2012.svg.png