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India: Cultural Issues
To better understand how the Indian media landscape is formed, it is helpful to look at its culture. The following will be discussed in this part of the Wiki:
To first get an understanding of the Indian culture, it is useful to look at the scores in Hofstede’s model. The graph shows the different dimensions and as can be read, power distance has the highest score, which means that the level of inequality is high and there is a big spread of wealth in India. Individuality is rather similar to world average, indicating that India does not have a very individualistic culture. Masculinity is just above the world average, showing that in society there is clear male-dominance, but it may also show that the female population gets more competitive as to be more independent. Long term orientation being higher than the world average helps understanding the Indian culture is rather perseverant. Uncertainty avoidance is a lot lower than world average, which is a good indicator that social media can have a big effect in the Indian society as they are open to new ideas.
Source: Geert Hostede - India
The majority of the Indian population is Hindu (80,5%) which obviously has a big impact on the Indian culture in general. Although officially the caste-system is not in place anymore, still this seems to play a big role in societal hierarchy. Especially in more rural areas it still significantly organises society, but in the upper and middle classes the caste-system seems to be of less importance.
According to David Kenny, community-based societies respond faster in adopting social media than individualistic societies. As pointed out in Hofstede’s model, the Indian culture is a community-based country, so according to David Kenny social media can be easily adopted into the Indian culture. In China, it can already be seen what a big impact social media can have on society, so there lies a huge potential for social media in the Indian market.
The key Indian believes and values are shown in the diagram.
Source: David Kenny, Wolfgang Messner - The Society and Culture in India
In India the position of women depends mainly on the social class she lives in and arranged marriages are still very common. In 2004 a project was set up by the Indian Institute of Technology where internet cafes and kiosks were created throughout India. 80% of these shops were run by women with little or no knowledge about technologies used. The shops open early in the morning and facilitate the contact for rural areas with urban areas. Especially videoconferencing for doctors’ consults was a widely used application. This shows women fulfill a significant role in making the Internet more widely available throughout the country.
Source: BBC News - South Asia
| Contents |
| #1 Indian Culture in General |
| #2 Religion, Beliefs, and Values |
| #3 Role of Women |
| #1 Indian Culture in General |
To first get an understanding of the Indian culture, it is useful to look at the scores in Hofstede’s model. The graph shows the different dimensions and as can be read, power distance has the highest score, which means that the level of inequality is high and there is a big spread of wealth in India. Individuality is rather similar to world average, indicating that India does not have a very individualistic culture. Masculinity is just above the world average, showing that in society there is clear male-dominance, but it may also show that the female population gets more competitive as to be more independent. Long term orientation being higher than the world average helps understanding the Indian culture is rather perseverant. Uncertainty avoidance is a lot lower than world average, which is a good indicator that social media can have a big effect in the Indian society as they are open to new ideas. Source: Geert Hostede - India
| #2 Religion, Beliefs, and Values |
The majority of the Indian population is Hindu (80,5%) which obviously has a big impact on the Indian culture in general. Although officially the caste-system is not in place anymore, still this seems to play a big role in societal hierarchy. Especially in more rural areas it still significantly organises society, but in the upper and middle classes the caste-system seems to be of less importance.
According to David Kenny, community-based societies respond faster in adopting social media than individualistic societies. As pointed out in Hofstede’s model, the Indian culture is a community-based country, so according to David Kenny social media can be easily adopted into the Indian culture. In China, it can already be seen what a big impact social media can have on society, so there lies a huge potential for social media in the Indian market.
The key Indian believes and values are shown in the diagram.
Source: David Kenny, Wolfgang Messner - The Society and Culture in India
| #3 Role of Women |
In India the position of women depends mainly on the social class she lives in and arranged marriages are still very common. In 2004 a project was set up by the Indian Institute of Technology where internet cafes and kiosks were created throughout India. 80% of these shops were run by women with little or no knowledge about technologies used. The shops open early in the morning and facilitate the contact for rural areas with urban areas. Especially videoconferencing for doctors’ consults was a widely used application. This shows women fulfill a significant role in making the Internet more widely available throughout the country.Source: BBC News - South Asia
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Latest page update: made by ShandyAlidjaja
, Nov 16 2009, 8:31 PM EST
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