Written By: Bethany Chern & Jiya Patel
This Cultures Around the World article series will focus on a different region or country in each article and a particular aspect of the culture such as clothing, food, social norms, art, etc. This time around, we are focusing on the country of India, and in particular the Gujrati, Hindu, and Panjabi cultures, which are from north India.
Let’s start exploring north India culture through the typical clothing and food of the region.
On a regular day for women in India, one would wear a salwar kameez (a pair of fancy pants, a nice matching shirt), a langa (a floor length skirt with a shirt that ends just above the belly button), or a sari (which is a langa, but with a chunni, which is a shawl that you would wrap around yourself in a special way). Another outfit that is common in India is a churidar, a type of long dress length shirt, with pants underneath. In India, people enjoy beauty, so you will find that even everyday clothes are what Americans would call fancy.
Men would typically wear a curta, (a salwar kameez but less decorated)in India.
In India they also have amazing food, and some classic Indian dishes such as mutton, lamb biryani (a rice dish cooked with spices and lamb), butter chicken, naan, idli, sambar, naan (an Indian pita), alu gobi (a dish made with potatoes, cauliflower, and spices), samosas (a baked pastry filled with various fillings), crab curry (a spicy curry with a red chili base and crab in it) are typical. All Indian food is spicy, because of a spice mix called masala, which includes coriander, cumin, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cardamom.
Both the food and the clothing in norther India are colorful and a sensory experience.