SCHOLARLY PAPER.

Scholarly Paper

Scholarly Paper

Introduction

One of the major distinctions between Indian Americans and other Asian groups is the ideas surrounding marriage. Although many Asians groups have preferred rules for marriage, such as the preference for an Asian to marry an Asian, most Asian groups do not have elaborate caste rules and arranged marriage rituals like Indian Americans do. In the Indian culture, finding a mate is not an individual decision. Rather, the entire family is involved throughout the process, starting from finding a boy or girl, meeting their family, exchanging presents, going to a priest for blessings, a week long wedding celebration, and finally the conservative reception. A marriage cannot take place unless both families have agreed to the union and have provided their blessings. It is seen as very improper for a man to ask a woman for her hand in marriage without first asking her father for permission.

Discussion

Many distinctions can be made between American culture and Indian culture as well. American culture tends to value the individual whereas Indian culture places great emphasis on the group. As a result, women in American culture are much more independent than women in Indian culture. The emphasis on the group makes it difficult to have anonymity. For example, in Indian communities, everyone knows everyone's business. An Indian community can be compared to a small town where your business is everyone's business.

Besides being leaders academically and economically, Americans have come to embrace more of the artistic and religious aspects of Indian culture. In more recent years, Indian culture has become more mainstream as more and more people have been introduced to Indian music and symbols through the mass media. Everyone from the general public to celebrities has embraced Indian culture. Many designers have begun to produce clothing bearing Indian religious symbols such as the Ohm sign as well as shirts embroidered with Indian gods and goddesses such as Krishna or Gita. In several music videos played on the popular music channel, MTV, celebrities such as Madonna and Gwen Stefani from No Doubt have sported Indian clothing such as the salvar kamis (a pant and top suit) and the infamous bindi, the decorative dot worn by many Indian women.

Nowhere has Indian culture become more mainstream than in American music, especially the hip hop genre. Numerous musical artists, such as Missy Eliot and RedMan, have incorporated Indian music into their beats. The unfortunate thing however is that most of these artists use these Indian lyrics and beats because they simply like the sounds of them. Many do not understand the difference between Indian and Arab music. In fact, in many of the music videos some of these artists have belly dancers dancing to the Indian music and subtitles that are completely wrong. Nonetheless, the general listening public has grown accustomed to these sounds, and has helped make these songs reach top ten lists across the country. Indian artists have even started becoming members of American bands such as Tony Kanal of ...