CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION

Culture is a concept which cannot be easily defined. There is no single character of mark which can be regarded as the essence or differential of culture. It is always a combination of many strands of varying importance and vitality. If we attempt to differentiate between culture and civilization, we might say that civilization is organization of life which makes civil society grow. Such civil society is a necessary condition for corporate life on which along individuals can pursue fruitful and creative activity. Culture, on the other hand, is the outcome of such organization and expresses itself through language and art, through philosophy and religion, through social habits and customs and through political institutions and organizations. None of them is separately culture, but collectively they constitute an expression of life which we describe as culture. In so far as civilization is organization of society which creates the conditions needed for development of culture, there can be no culture without civilization, but there may be civilizations which have not yet developed their culture. Culture is the efflorescence of civilization.

Man’s limited power and resources compelled association. Association secured the conditions of survival and once survival was guaranteed, it released sufficient energies for the development of culture on a rudimentary scale. Culture was, therefore, the result of liberation from the urgency of the problem of existence while civilization was the form of machinery evolved for the achievement of such liberty. It is, therefore, not surprising the culture should be less pervasive and widespread than civilization. What is surprising is that Indian should seem to offer an example where culture is almost as extensive as civilization itself.

The experience of some western countries gives us examples of civilization without culture. In fact, one of the most serious problems of modem times is to create a culture for nations which have achieved a high degree of success in evolving the organization and instruments of civilization. In India, on the other hand, the processes of civilization have not been so highly developed as in Europe or America, but the state of civilization evolved has expressed itself in the pervasive character of culture which envelopes the vast majority of her people.