India is justly famous for its complex social systems. Indian society is multifaceted to an extent perhaps unknown in any other of the world's great civilizations. Virtually no generalization made about Indian society is valid for all of the nation's multifarious groups. Comprehending the complexities of Indian social structure has challenged scholars and other observers over many decades.

Culture and tradition comprises the different aspects of Indian society. The crest of diverse traditions and the symbol of rich ethnicity, reflect the true nature of Indian society amidst the collage of traditional rituals and mosaic of Indian fiestas. The social tradition and heritage make the country to stand out distinctively.

Social interdependence

One of the great themes pervading Indian life is social interdependence. People are born into groups--families, clans, subcastes, castes, and religious communities--and live with a constant sense of being part of and inseparable from these groups. A corollary is the notion that everything a person does properly involves interaction with other people. A person's greatest dread, perhaps, is the possibility of being left alone, without social support, to face the necessary challenges of life. This sense of interdependence is extended into the theological realm: the very shape of a person's life is seen as being greatly influenced by divine beings with whom an ongoing relationship must be maintained.

Culture

The culture of India refers to the way of life of the people of India. India's languages, religions, dance, music, architecture, food, and customs differ from place to place within the country. The Indian culture often labelled as an amalgamation of several cultures, spans across the Indian subcontinent and includes traditions that are several millennia old. Culture in India has deep imprints of religion.

Religions

India is the land of spirituality and philosophy and is considered to be the birthplace of many religions. Indian religion is varied in approach and different in meaning. In the Indian subcontinent Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism form a subgroup of the larger class of "Eastern religions". Religion adds meaning and purpose to the lives of the people. Religion has diversified and grown to include major monotheistic religions in the country. A wide assortment of religions exists in the country today.

Communities

Indian communities refer to that structured and integrated group of people, belonging to a certain ethnicity In fact, ancient history in India does lend considerable and credible information regarding primeval communities, or organisations that had cropped up since the times of pre-Christian era. Indeed, since the eras of Indus Valley Civilization and Harappa, the concept of organising communities had been well assimilated within both uneducated and educated classes. Indus Valley is known to contain both uneducated and educated society, with Indian history also informing that it was this very civilisation itself that perhaps had first traced lines of illustrious lineage and something now referred to as sophistication. Religious, economic, administrational, even, societal classed communities had existed during ancient Indian evolvement.

Village Structure and Unity

About three-fourths of India’s people live in some 500,000 villages, where India’s most basic business—agriculture takes place. Most villages have fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, but some have as many as 5,000 people. Indian villages are often quite complex and are not isolated socially or economically. Most villages include a multiplicity of economic, caste, kinship, occupational, and even religious groups linked vertically within each settlement. Residents typically range from priests and cultivators to merchants, artisans, and laborers. Various crucial horizontal linkages connect each village with many others and with urban areas both near and far. In daily life and at colorful festivals and rituals, members of various groups provide essential goods and services for one another.

Hierarchical society/Caste system

India is a hierarchical society. Whether in north India or south India, Hindu or Muslim, urban or village, virtually all things, people, and social groups are ranked according to various essential qualities. Although India is a political democracy, notions of complete equality are seldom evident in daily life.

Societal hierarchy is evident in caste groups, amongst individuals, and in family and kinship groups. Castes are primarily associated with Hinduism, but caste-like groups also exist among Muslims, Indian, Christians, and other religious communities. Within most villages or towns, everyone knows the relative rankings of each locally represented caste, and behavior is constantly shaped by this knowledge.

Caste system is one feature that had driven these ancient Indian communities to behave the way they did. Hindu community, divided into Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. These four cardinal Hindu caste systems are further sub-divided, a concept that is very much retained in present-day Indian society. It is also known that an omnipresent and unseen demarcation line had existed amongst these ancient Indian communities, with none daring to cross that thin red line. Hinduism had hugely dominated in ancient Indian religious systems, with the Mauryans, Guptas, Palas, Cholas, Kushanas, Vijayanagaras, Satavahanas, Pratiharas, Chalukyas, even Marathas (in much later times) assorting to significant establishment of communities.

Tribes

Indian Tribal people or "Adivasi" is an umbrella term for a heterogeneous phylum of ethnic and tribal groups living in various stares in India. They are counted as a minor but they occupy a larger part of the country as they are the original inhabitant in India.
According to Article 342 of the Constitution of India there are 697 tribes as counted by the Central Government. These Indian tribal groups of people have been notified to occupy more than one State. More than half of the Indian tribal population is concentrated in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Jharkhand and Gujarat, whereas in Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Puducherry and Chandigarh no community has been notified as a specific tribal group. Other Indian tribal societies are found in Rajasthan, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, West Bengal, Mizoram and other states in north eastern part of India.

Urban-rural differences

Urban-rural differences can be immense. Nearly 74 percent of India's population dwells in villages, with agriculture providing support for most of these rural residents. In villages, mud-plastered walls ornamented with traditional designs, dusty lanes, herds of grazing cattle, and the songs of birds at sunset provide typical settings for the social lives of most Indians. In India's great cities, however, millions of people live amidst cacophony--roaring vehicles, surging crowds, jammed apartment buildings, busy commercial establishments, loudspeakers blaring movie tunes--while breathing the poisons of industrial and automotive pollution.

Gender distinctions

Gender distinctions are pronounced. The behavior expected of men and women can be quite different, especially in villages, but also in urban centers. Prescribed ideal gender roles help shape the actions of both sexes as they move between family and the world outside the home.

Family and kinship

In India, people learn the essential themes of cultural life within the bosom of a family. In most of the country, the basic units of society are the patrilineal family unit and wider kinship groupings. The most widely desired residential unit is the joint family, ideally consisting of three or four patrilineally related generations, all living under one roof, working, eating, worshiping, and cooperating together in mutually beneficial social and economic activities. Patrilineal joint families include men related through the male line, along with their wives and children. Most young women expect to live with their husband's relatives after marriage, but they retain important bonds with their natal families.Despite the continuous and growing impact of urbanization, secularization, and Westernization, the traditional joint household, both in ideal and in practice, remains the primary social force in the lives of most Indians. Loyalty to family is a deeply held ideal for almost everyone.