Pakistani Culture Vs. Indian Culture

Fizan Fida

Professor Garnett

ENG 111/ENF 3

26 March 2017

Pakistani Culture vs. Indian Culture

Pakistan and India were the same country in the past, and were under British occupation until they won independence in August 1947 (Chawla). These countries separated due to religious reasons. India remained a Hindu country while Pakistan became a Muslim country, but they still fight over a small place called Kashmir. India and Pakistan are neighboring countries that share much history and culture. The ideas, customs and social behavior makes them what they are and gives each of them their own special characteristics. Pakistan and India speak some of similar languages, but have different religions, food, and clothing that makes them unique.

Starting with the languages, the national language of Pakistan is called Urdu, and the national language of India is called Hindi, which is also an official language of India. Urdu is mixture of Arabic, Persian, Chagatai, Hindi, Marathi and Konkani, while Hindi is early descent of Sanskrit. Hindi and Urdu developed from the “Khari Boli” dialect spoken in Delhi region of northern India (‘Two Languages Or One”). These two languages also share the same grammar and most of the basic everyday vocabulary. They both are Indo-European languages and are distantly related to English, having a similar range of tenses and some cognate vocabulary in words. Hindi and Urdu are closely related to each other. People who can speak Urdu, can also understand Hindi. However, Both languages are very different in written format. Urdu follows Perso-Arabic script, which we write from right to left. On the other hand, Hindi follows Devanagari script, which people write from left to right.

India has one of the world’s largest Muslims population – 120 million -among its more than one billion people (“India/Pakistan”). However, the country itself is based on Hinduism. Pakistan has a majority of Muslim people, and the country is based on Islam. Both religions are totally different from each other. Hindus believe that they have a god for everything, for example, there is god of sun, god of forgiveness, god of money and so on up to millions of gods. On the other hand, Muslims believe in only one God, and they follow the last Prophet Mohammed S.A.W along with Prophet Jesus, Moses and all the past messengers of God, peace be upon all of them. Pakistan allow people from all religions to worship their religions.

There is a difference between Indian and Pakistani food as well. Most Indian people (who follows the Hindu religion) do not eat meat at all and many of them do not eat beef only, but people who follows other religion like Islam and Sikhism, they do eat meat. On the other side, in Pakistan, the majority of people eat every kind of meat except pork. Indian food has more spices than Pakistani food. In Pakistan, many prefer roti (bread) with curry; in India, most prefer rice with fish. Some Pakistani dishes are Mutton korma, Chicken karahi and Biryani. There is a diverse of dishes available in Pakistan. Indian popular dishes are Biryani, Idli, Rajma, Tandoori chicken an Pani puri. Biryani is Famous and the most demanded dish in both countries. This is what people can find on every occasion in both countries. Gulaab Jamun and Jalebi are two most favorite sweets in the Indian Sub-continent.

Pakistanis and Indians have distinct cultures of their own. In both countries, people cover their body from neck to