In this article, we will see the classification of cultural regions in India based on language, religion, traditions and customs. India has always been a land of diversity where people speaking different dialects, practicing different religions, following different customs and traditions coexisted for hundreds of years. In the history of India, many of the faiths and believes are introduced while rest of them are Indigenous to the country. Hinduism is the major religion practiced in the country followed by Islamic religion, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism. Few of the minority religion people such as Parsis also exists in all parts of the country.

Hinduism is further divided into different sects like Saivism and Vaishnavism. The religious sects like Buddhism, Jainism and Buddhism were carved out from the Hinduism culture as a result of some popular movements happened in the past history. Hinduism is known to be the Indigenous culture while Christianity, Islam and Zoroastrianism are known to be introduced from the outside. People with different religions speaks different languages as we go to different parts of the country. Here we will see those cultural regions that may be classified based on different culture and traditions followed in that region.

What is a Cultural Region

It is an area or a geographical region with people of same cultural tradition, values, religion and customs. Often, in a cultural region majority of the population follows a certain religion and speaks a specific language.

Classification of Cultural Regions in India | UPSC IAS IPS IFS

Also Read: 50 Important Questions on Savanna You Should Know About

Majorly, the cultural regions in India can be divided into ten different regions based on language, religion, traditions and customs. Those are as follows:-

• Ladakhi-Buddhist Cultural Region: It is mainly the region in and around Ladakh in Northern Himalayas. This region has many gompas and buddhist monasteries with people following ladakhi culture.
• Kashmiri-Muslim Cultural Region: This region covers the northern Jammu and Kashmir area along with the Southern Leh area with majority of the people from Muslim religion speaking Kashmiri language.
• Kinnauri-Dev Bhumi Cultural Region: This region mostly covered the mountainous area of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh where majority of the population speaks hindi language and follows hindu culture. There are many temples, shrines and other hindu religious places are found in this region.
• Sikh-Gurmukhi Cultural Region: This region comprises the state of Punjab and union territory of Chandigarh where Sikh religion is the most dominating religion with Gurmukhi being the language of the people. This region has many gurudwaras and pilgrimage centre including the famous Golden temple in Amritsar.
• Hindu-Hindi Cultural Region: This region spreaded over multiple states in India which includes Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and southern parts of Uttarakhand. In this region, hindi is the major spoken language and Hinduism is the major followed religion.
• North-East India Region: This region spreaded over the North eastern states of India which includes Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. The cultural diversity in this region is huge as there are number of languages spoken here with people following different faith and religions.
• Bengali Cultural Region: This region spreaded over the state of West Bengal and parts of Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa. In this area, majority of the population speaks Bengali language and follows Hinduism tradition and culture.
• Marathi-Hindu Cultural Region: This region spreaded over the state of Maharashtra and parts of Goa, Gujarat, Telangana and Karnataka where majority of the population follows Hinduism culture and the primary language spoken is Marathi.
• Tribo-Hindu Cultural Region: This region spreaded over the parts of state of Odisha and Chhattisgarh under Chotanagpur plateau where majority of the tribal populations flourished for many generations. People with mixed tribal culture and with different faiths are found here.
• Dravidian-Cultural Region: It is mainly the regions in the southern parts of India. The present day Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Hyderabad and Telangana comes into this part where dominantly speaking languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.