Volume 20, Number 3 Article by Sunil Kumar Singh, Vasanthi Srinivasan, Suren Sista, Manu Parashar September, 2008
Cross Cultural Conceptualisations: A Case for Multiple National Cultures in India :
Most conceptualisations of national culture originate from the 'nation state' concept of homogeneous national culture. However, researchers have reported the coexistence of the opposing ends of continuums of existing models in countries like India. While these studies explore only the homogeneity-heterogeneity issues, this paper looks at national culture from a multidisciplinary perspective by exploring the antecedents of culture formation. The paper postulates five antecedents of culture social identity, historical context, economic parameters, institutional factors and geography.
The resultant typology of antecedents illuminates the possibility of many distinct national cultures existing within a country. This would be especially true in the case of complex countries like India and China. In many cases, the homogeneous national culture model leaves many unexplained contradictions. Some Indian as well as foreign researchers have questioned such a homogeneous conception of Indian national culture.
This paper explores many of the questions that arise when nations are viewed as heterogeneous entities, and examines the antecedents of culture formation. The paper aims to answer some of these questions regarding national culture, taking India as a case in point. The status of India as a heterogeneous entity is explored using a context-situated approach. Based on an exploratory study, the paper proposes a model wherein the states of the Indian union are classified into different clusters based on twenty variables that could be used to operationalise the social, historical, economic, institutional and geographical context for these states. Cluster analysis is the chosen method to analyse data. The paper makes a case for multiple national cultures and dwells on what this could mean for organisational strategies and policies. It also points to the fact that culture may not be bound by a country's boundaries.
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