Performing arts

Music
Main article: Music of India

The music of India includes multiples varieties of religious, folk, popular, pop, and classical music. The oldest preserved examples of Indian music are the melodies of the Samaveda that are still sung in certain Vedic Shrauta sacrifices. India's classical music tradition is heavily influenced by Hindu texts. It includes Carnatic and Hindustani music and is noted for the use of several Raga, has a history spanning millennia, and, developed over several eras, remains instrumental to the religious inspiration, cultural expression and pure entertainment. Alongside distinctly subcontinental forms, there are some similarities with other types of Oriental music.

Purandaradasa is considered the "father of carnatic music" (Karnataka sangeeta pitamaha).[4][5][6] He concluded his songs with a salutation to Lord Purandara Vittala and is believed to have composed as many as 375,000-450,000[citation needed] songs in the Kannada language. However, only about 1000 are known today

Dance

Indian dance too has diverse folk and classical forms. Among the well-known folk dances are the bhangra of the Punjab, the bihu of Assam, the chhau of Jharkhand and Orissa and the ghoomar of Rajasthan. Eight dance forms, many with narrative forms and mythological elements, have been accorded classical dance status by India's National Academy of Music, Dance, and Drama. These are: bharatanatyam of the state of Tamil Nadu, kathak of Uttar Pradesh, kathakali and mohiniattam of Kerala, kuchipudi of Andhra Pradesh, manipuri of Manipur, odissi of the state of Orissa and the sattriya of Assam.[8]

Martial arts

Kalarippayattu or Kalari for short is one of the world's oldest martial art. It is preserved in texts such as the Mallapurana. Kalari and other later formed martial arts have been assumed by some to have traveled to China, like Buddhism, and eventually developing into Kung-fu. Other later martial arts are Gatka,Pehlwani,and Malla-yuddha. There have been many great practitioners of Indian martial Arts including Bodhidharma who supposedly brought Indian martial arts to China.

Drama and theatre

ndian drama and theatre has a long history alongside its music and dance. Kalidasa's plays like Shakuntala and Meghadoota are some of the older plays, following those of Bhasa. One of the oldest surviving theatre tradition of the world is the 2000 year old Kutiyattam of Kerala. It strictly follows the Natya Shastra. The dramas of Bhasa are very popular in this art form. Nātyāchārya (late) Padma Shri Māni Mādhava Chākyār- the unrivaled maestro of this art form and Abhinaya, revived the age old drama tradition from extinction. He was known for mastery of Rasa Abhinaya. He started to perform the Kalidasa plays like Abhijñānaśākuntala, Vikramorvaśīya and Mālavikāgnimitra ; Bhasa's Swapnavāsavadatta and Pancharātra; Harsha's Nagananda in Kutiyattam form.
The tradition of folk theatre is alive in nearly all of the linguistic regions of the country.[citation needed] In addition, there is a rich tradition of puppet theatre in rural India, going back to at least the second century BCE. (It is mentioned in Patanjali's commentary on Panini). Group Theatre is also thriving in the cities, initiated by the likes of Gubbi Veeranna[9] Utpal Dutt, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, K. V. Subbanna and still maintained by groups like Nandikar, Ninasam and Prithvi Theatre.

Literature

History
Main article: Indian literature

The earliest literary traditions were oral and have been passed down as such. Later, though, they were transcribed. Many of them derive from Hindu tradition and are represented by texts in Sanskrit such as the Vedas, the epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Other are in Sangam literature from the beginning of the Common Era, and in Kannada such as the writings Prabhrita (650 CE) and Chudamani (Crest Jewel- 650 CE or earlier; a 96,000 verse commentary on logic)[1][2][3]. Furthermore, many Buddhist sutras and Jain works are in Prakrit languages like Pali (c. 250 BCE) and Ardhamagadhi, and later on in Sanskrit. All these represent some of India's oldest literary traditions.
During the period of the Delhi sultanate (after 1200 CE) and in the subsequent Mughal era, Islamic culture has influenced medieval Indian literature.[clarify] This was especially due to the increased influence of Persian, including the work of famous poets such as Amir Khusro.


Poetry
Main article: Indian poetry

India has strong traditions of poetry ever since the Rigveda, as well as prose compositions. Poetry is often closely related to musical traditions, and much of poetry can be attributed to religious movements. Writers and philosophers were often also skilled poets. In modern times, poetry has served as an important non-violent tool of nationalism during the Indian freedom movement. A famous modern example of this tradition can be found in such figures as Rabindranath Tagore and K. S. Narasimhaswamy in modern times and poets such as Basava (vachanas) , Kabir and Purandaradasa (padas and devaranamas) in medieval times, as well as the epics of ancient times. Two examples of poetry from Tagore's Gitanjali serve as the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh.


Epics
Main article: Indian epic poetry

The Ramayana and Mahabharata are the oldest preserved and still well-known epics of India; some of their versions have been adopted as the epics of Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. In addition, there are five epics in the classical Tamil language -they being Silappadhikaram, Manimegalai, Jeevaga-chintamani, Valayaapathi, Kundalakesi. Other regional variations of them as well as unrelated epics include the Tamil Kamba Ramayanam, in Kannada, the Pampa Bharata by Adikavi Pampa, Torave Ramayana by Kumara Valmiki and Karnata Bharata KathaManjari by Kumaravyasa, Hindi Ramacharitamanasa, Malayalam Adhyathmaramayanam.

Language

The great number of languages in India have added to the diverse cultures and traditions at both regional and national levels. 216 languages are spoken by a group of more than 10,000 people; however there are many others which are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people. All together, there are 415 living languages in India. The Constitution of India has stipulated the usage of Hindi and English to be the two official languages of communication for the Union Government. Individual state's own internal communications are done in the state's language. The two major linguistic families in India are those of the Indo-Aryan languages and the Dravidian languages, the former being largely confined to northern, western, central and eastern India and the latter to southern India. The next largest language family in India is the Austro-Asiatic language group, which contains the Munda languages of central and eastern India, the Khasian languages of northeastern India, and the Nicobarese languages of the Nicobar Islands. The fourth largest language family in India is the Tibeto-Burman languages, which are themselves a subgroup of the larger Sino-Tibetan language family.

Culture of India

The culture of India has been shaped by the long history of India, its unique geography and the absorption of customs, traditions and ideas from some of its neighbors as well as by preserving its ancient heritages, from the Indus Valley Civilization onward. India's great diversity of cultural practices, languages, customs, and traditions are examples of this unique co-mingling over the past five millennea. India is also the birth place of several religious systems such as Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, some of which have had a large influence in other parts of the world. From the thirteenth century onwards, following the Islamic conquests and the subsequent European colonialization, the culture of India was influenced by Turkish, Persian, Arabic and English cultures. The various religions and traditions of India that were created by these amalgamations have influenced South East Asia and some other parts of the world.

Volunteer in the U.S

AIF recognizes that contributions of time and talent are just as important as financial contributions. Therefore AIF encourages volunteers to contribute their time by participating in one of our chapters or by volunteering at one of our offices.

Volunteering with AIF is a rewarding experience as volunteers get to participate actively in accelerating social and economic change in India. AIF’s office volunteers help to build the organizational infrastructure that makes all of AIF’s activities happen. AIF’s chapter volunteers build awareness of solutions to India’s development challenges and raise critical resources to implement these solutions.

 

Livelihood

Livelihoods consists of both generation of income as well as the ownership of assets that reduces the vulnerability of marginalized communities. AIF is focusing on addressing two trends that are keeping millions of people in poverty through its livelihood grantmaking. First, a majority of the population is still dependent upon the agricultural sector for their income and the income derived from farming is too little to improve their economic status. The rural poor often are unable to save and do not have access to credit to invest in creating assets. As a result, there is overexploitation of natural resources such as water and forests in people’s attempts to increase inputs into their agricultural production. Second, as rural people are unable to live off their incomes in rural areas they migrate to urban centers in search of employment that will sustain them. Most of these people are unskilled and so find only low-paying manual labor and they also lack the capital to establish themselves in the cities.

AIF’s livelihood grants program in India focuses on strategic interventions to improve the quality of livelihood opportunities currently available and to provide alternative livelihood opportunities to ensure that poor people in rural and urban areas have adequate resources to sustain themselves. The grants focus on innovations and scaling-up of effective models of improving livelihoods as well as building the capacity of NGOs working on these issues through research and dissemination of best practices information. AIF is particularly focused on the empowerment of women as increasing their incomes and assets has tremendous multiplier effects on the socio-economic indicators of their families and communities.

Public Health

Population of India: 1.13 billion (national estimates for March 2008)


With nearly one-third of its population under the age of 15, India has the potential to benefit from a huge 'population dividend' for the labor force of the future. However, this 'dividend' is at risk because a majority of India's young people live in poverty, are semi literate and unskilled, and are at risk to contract preventable yet debilitating diseases and fatal infections. Poor public health services further complicate the scenario as young people do not have access to adequate health care.

Health indicators show that women fare much worse than men in India. Their health illiteracy and lack of rights in concert with poor health services continues to fuel a vicious cycle of disease and premature death. From fetal selection for son preference to malnourishment and maternal mortality, female health indices are emblematic of deep socio-cultural discrimination that perpetuate inequitable health outcomes and impair their ability to live healthy lives.

This situation erodes India's productivity and economic gains because healthy women are key to healthy families and healthy families are key to a healthy economy.


India spends only 1% of its GDP on health, translating into $35 per capita. France spends 10.4% and Japan 8%.

A significant portion of the population receives inadequate or no health care, specifically 25.7% living below the poverty line and those who have only the public health system to rely on.

National Family Health Survey for 2005-06 estimates 453 deaths per 100,000 women; higher than Cambodia, Bolivia and Botswana

India accounts for 20% of the world's maternal deaths, witha woman dying every five minutes

20% of deaths of children worldwide under the age of 5 occur in India