Yoga, vegan diets, karma, and so much more all stem from India, whose culture has a far-reaching influence on other societies around the world.
The rich tapestry of India’s ancient history and culture has long inspired and influenced other countries across the globe. Indian cultural practices have inspired famous musicians, bettered the fitness and health of millions, and has found their way into the spiritual and mental health practices of many societies.
India’s influence upon contemporary societies around the world
India is a special place whose ancient cultural and religious traditions continue to influence contemporary societies around the world. Here are some of the ways the world’s most populous nation has influenced practices, beliefs, and lifestyles elsewhere on the planet.
Yoga and meditation
Yoga and meditation have ancient roots in Indian culture. Both practices are intertwined, stemming from the Hindu Vedas, and are focused on breathing techniques aimed at increasing mental health and overall well-being. They date back to around 1500 BC, making them 3,000 years old, which is a testament to their importance both within India and globally.
Mahesh Yogi, an Indian guru, brought transcendental meditation to the West in the 1960s. It became popularized by celebrities such as Jerry Seinfeld and the Beatles, and today more than six million people practice it. While there are many different forms of meditation such as mindful meditation and the zen style Buddhists use, transcendental meditation specifically comes from India.
Swami Vivekananda introduced yoga to the West in 1893 during his historic address at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago. He focused on the spiritual and philosophical teachings of Raja Yoga, emphasizing meditation, self-discipline, and the unity of all religions, making the ancient wisdom of yoga accessible to Western audiences.
Decades later, Swami Vishnudevananda further modernized yoga by systematizing it into five principles: Proper Exercise (Āsana), Proper Breathing (Prāṇāyāma), Proper Relaxation (Śavāsana), Proper Diet (Vegetarian), and Positive Thinking & Meditation (Vedānta & Dhyāna). These principles, which integrate physical, mental, and spiritual well-being, remain foundational in contemporary yoga practice worldwide.
Veganism
The Indus Valley civilization in ancient India is where vegetarianism and the ideas that led to veganism can be traced back to, between 3300–1300 BC. It is believed that these approaches to diet originated from the people of the Jain faith in North India, whose vegetarian diet was a result of a strict rule against harming animals. As India and Greece connected following Alexander the Great’s conquest of India (326BC), the diet began making its way westward.
Thousands of years later, in 1944, British woodworker Donald Watson founded The Vegan Society to further the ideals of vegetarianism. Vegetarians eat dairy and eggs, but Watson wanted to create a diet where people would completely avoid animal products, hence the creation of veganism.
Karma
In many countries, the word “karma” is thrown around quite loosely. For example, when something bad happens to someone we consider a bad person, we think karma has got to them. Karma is often described via sayings such as “you reap what you sow” or “what goes around comes back around.” However, the proper Indian notion of karma evokes a complicated relationship between actions and consequences which work in tandem with the cycle of life and death.
The concept of karma originated in the Rig Veda, a collection of Hindu religious and philosophical texts from the Bronze Age, dating back to around 1500 BCE. The ancient dharmic practice is a universal law in Indian philosophy that states that someone’s future is dictated by the actions they take in the present. It incentivizes living in a moral and just way as karma not only dictates the outcome of your life, but also your state of reincarnation.
A person carries past karma into each life cycle and begins new karma. Negative experiences in a new life cycle may be the result of bad actions in a previous life. The only way karma ends is when a person has finished their final life cycle and is released, achieving moksha.
Music
Indian music, such as Raga rock, has inspired the lyrics and music of many Western bands including The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Doors, and more. Indian music was popularized in the UK and beyond after The Beatles heard some live Indian music at a restaurant and were inspired to adapt some of its traditional sounds and ideas into their own work.
“We were waiting to shoot the scene in the restaurant when the guy gets thrown in the soup and a few Indian musicians were playing in the background,” said George Harrison in an interview about how the band encountered Indian music for the first time. “I remember picking up the sitar and trying to hold it and thinking, ‘This is a funny sound.’”
The group’s interest deepened with the guidance and lessons of Mahesh Yogi, who taught them transcendental meditation. The band went with Yogi to India to delve further into the country’s culture, inspiring many after them to do the same and birthing the Hippie Trail. Being spurred on by the times and the changing morality system of the 1960s, bands like the Rolling Stones and The Doors followed shortly after the Beatles in adding Indian influences to their music.
Spirituality
The hippies of the 1960s and 1970s were influenced by Indian culture and spirituality. Their use of marijuana, goals of pacifism, and abandonment of material things are all inspired by Indian culture. As the artists of the time were inspired by Indian culture, their fanbase wanted to explore Indian ideology and traditions further. As a result, many American hippies traveled via the Hippie Trail through India, visiting places such as Goa, Rishikesh, Varanasi, Dharamshala, McLeod Ganj, and Pushkar.
Indian spiritual practitioners known as sadhus, who use marijuana for religious purposes, played a significant role in influencing the hippie movement. Often traveling alone or in groups, sadhus could be found along the Hippie Trail, a route passing through places of Hindu spiritual significance. As hippies traversed this path, they frequently encountered the sadhus, whose way of life inspired them to abandon material possessions in pursuit of spiritual enlightenment.