this presentation is part of my academic studies in M.A in English at Department of English, M. K. Bhavnagar University

1. Name : Vora Kiran Shamaldas.
Class : M.A Sem. 2
Roll no. 13
Paper no. 8 Cultural Studies
Topic :
American Culture vs. Indian Culture
Email Id : Kiranvora5196@gmail.com
Submitted to:
Smt. S.B. Gardi
Department of
English
M. K. Bhavnagar University.

2. American Culture
VS.
Indian Culture
 What are the differences between these two cultures
 Some similarities
 Popular culture – beliefs and myth
 How Americans represents India in their popular
culture

3. Differences between American and
Indian Culture
 No two cultures are the same. While American culture is mixer of
different cultures the Indian culture is unique and has its own
values.
 India is still a developing country while America is developed
country, nation in power.
 Indian culture is one of the oldest cultures in the world while
American culture is modern culture.
 One of the major differences can be seen between American and
Indian culture is Family relations. While the Indians are very
much Family oriented and Americans are individually oriented.
 In Indian culture a person may give up his/her happiness and
wishes for the sake of family, but America this trend cannot be
seen.
 Political system – U. S. is the world’s oldest democracy and India
is the world’s largest democracy

4.  Americans believe in dominating nature and controlling the
environment around them but Indians believe in the harmony with
the nature.
 Americans are more independent and Indians are dependent on
others.
 Children – Americans freely discuss love life with parents, hide love
life from parents.
 Parents – encourage children to be independent Indian parents
encourage children to be depended.
 Society plays an active part in a person’s life, every decision he/she
takes it reflects what society thinks about it.
 In American culture society doesn’t take an active part people take
decision depending on what they want not what society thinks
 In India girls are most commonly taught about cooking and boys are
taught about family business
 In America every one has his/her own choice about what thy want to
learn or do, nobody is forced to do anything

5.  In Indian culture family selects bride or groom for their children to
marry
 In American culture mostly love marriages happens
 Clothing style – in Indian culture women should wear not too revealing
and tight but in American culture women wear as they desire.
 India is still a man driven society where women are still not considered
equal to men
 In America women are equal to men in society
 In school or colleges an intelligent student is more popular and
important
 But in America intelligent student being called as “nerd” is not so
famous or important rather a person whom people make fun of.
 Indian food is heavily spiced and is rich in its flavor, in America basis of
food is meat, it is an essential part of every meal.
 American – has law budget – eats at Macdonald’s – high budget eats at
fancy Indian restaurant
 Indian – has law budget – eats home made Indian food - high budget –
eats at Macdonald’s.

6. Caste system and Racism
 in India the untouchables
were treated in very ill
manner, with no respect.
 they had to sit at a distance
from “upper castes”
 They were not even
allowed to enter in temples
of upper caste.
 In America, Africans were
treated in a harsh manner.
They were the slaves of the
community.
 They had no rights, when
they got their rights still
they were treated in ill
manner, badly and with
disrespect.
 In some region they had to
sit at a distance from white
people.
 In the both countries there is same racism against
lower classes in society.

7. Multiculturalism – Multi vs. Mix
 India is a country in
which every state has a
different culture and
identity, we can say it is
multi-cultural nation and
its like Salad bowl,
different things live
together.
 Different festival
celebration, languages,
clothes, cultural values
food as well as life style in
every state of India.
Many different religions
are there.
 America is rather a Melting pot
where people came from
different courtiers and live in
America and mostly forget
about their own culture and
influenced by American
culture, and here a major
aspect could be Racism also.
 In America there are many
people who are not native
Americans, different
languages, festival celebration,
cultural values are different.
People of different religion live
with their beliefs.

8. Popular culture – myth and beliefs
 In India we still believe in
Chudel, Dayan and atma.
 Our Hindi television gets
more TRP by showing this
kind of daily soaps and
major of the Indians watch
this kind of shows.
 Like sasural simar ka,
bhram rakshas, nagin and
kavach and all. In 2017 still
these shows have more
public to see this crap. this
is rether becoming a hurdle
in our development of
country.

9. In America
 In America still werewolves
and vampires are popular,
people believed that they
existed. And still in popular
culture many books are written
and many TV series and movies
are made on this concept in still
it’s popular widely.
 Teen Wolf is an American TV
series which is popular in India
also is about werewolf.
 Twilight, Vampire diaries.
 There are many popular books
from American youth which
have concept of werewolf and
got millions of reads.

10. WEREWOLVES

11. American representing bad image
of India in their popular culture
 The Big Bang Theory is one of the most popular American TV series. it
has 10 seasons.
 In this show there is an Indian character named Rajesh Koothrappli
who studied PhD in America and lives there with his American friends.
 Rajesh’s character is build up in way that Indians are like this only, even
Raj himself says he doesn’t want to go back to India. Many people think
this is an insult, still our Indian channel broadcasts it everyday.
 Quantico series season 1 (2015) in which Priyanka Chopra is in the lead
role of Alex Parrish who is the main suspect of terrorist attack in New
york, why? Being half Indian.
 Even in the popular American cartoon Phineas and Ferb, there’s an
Indian character Baljeet, who is smart in mathematics but still dumb in
many ways comparing to American kids, and it is easy to bully him.