Interesting facts about Indian culture: languages, dance and festivals

It is said that in India the water changes every few miles and the speech every few more. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Kutch to Kohima, language, food, clothes and festivals change, yet a shared thread joins them all. That is the greatest strength of Indian culture: unity in diversity. Here are some interesting facts about it that will help in students' essays, speeches and quizzes alike.

Languages: the world's biggest meeting place

• The Eighth Schedule of the Constitution lists 22 languages, and according to the census hundreds of mother tongues are spoken in the country.
• The Government of India has given 11 languages the status of "classical language" — Tamil (2004), Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia and, in 2024, Marathi, Pali, Prakrit, Assamese and Bengali.
• The amount on Indian banknotes is written in 17 languages — Hindi and English on the front, and 15 languages on the back.

Dance and music

The Sangeet Natak Akademi recognises eight dance styles as classical dances:

In music there are two great classical traditions — Hindustani in the north and Carnatic in the south. Both are believed to have roots in ancient texts, and "raga" and "tala" are the soul of both.

Did you know? UNESCO's list of the "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity" includes many elements from India — such as Vedic chanting, Ramlila, yoga (2016), the Kumbh Mela (2017), Durga Puja in Kolkata (2021) and the garba of Gujarat (2023).

Heritage sites

India has 44 UNESCO World Heritage Sites (as of 2025) — from the Taj Mahal, Ajanta-Ellora, Konark, Hampi, Khajuraho and the Qutub Minar to the Sundarbans, Kaziranga and the Western Ghats. In 2025 the "Maratha Military Landscapes" (twelve forts linked with Shivaji Maharaj) were added to the list. Jaipur's walled city is also a World Heritage Site — read Why is Jaipur called the Pink City.

Festivals and traditions

• A festival for every season: harvest festivals go by different names — Lohri and Baisakhi in Punjab, Pongal in Tamil Nadu, Bihu in Assam, Onam in Kerala and Makar Sankranti across the country.
• Namaste: this greeting with folded hands has become India's signature around the world.
• "Atithi Devo Bhava": this line from the Taittiriya Upanishad — "the guest is God" — expresses India's spirit of hospitality and has also been the slogan of India's tourism campaign.
• Food: the spice trade connected India with the world. Black pepper was once called "black gold", and India is still the world's largest producer of spices.

Variety in food and dress

India's culture shows in its food and clothes too. The designer and researcher Rta Kapur Chishti has recorded more than 100 traditional ways of draping a sari in her book. Darjeeling tea became the first Indian product to get a Geographical Indication (GI) tag, in 2004, and today the Banarasi sari, Bikaneri bhujia and many more are on the GI list. At India's proposal, the United Nations declared 2023 the "International Year of Millets", bringing traditional grains such as bajra, jowar and ragi back into focus.

A heritage of ancient knowledge

Yoga, Ayurveda, zero and the decimal system, chaturanga — the ancestor of chess — and universities such as Nalanda are part of India's cultural heritage that influenced the whole world. Read more in 10 amazing facts about ancient India.

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