The word “culture” can be defined as a set of socially transmitted beliefs along with the norms and behaviour of any group or community. India is a nation of various and varied cultures, where no two cultures have the same set of values and norms. Thus, cultural relativism comes to play. It is an idea that any person or society’s values and beliefs should be understood based on that person’s own culture.
Because of each culture being totally different from each other, it is important to follow the principle of “relativism” which aims to ensure that- there are no absolute truths, values or beliefs. It aims to promote the understanding of different cultural practices based on the values of the respective societies.
No culture should be considered better than any other culture with respect to politics, laws or values. The concept of cultural relativism also aims to ensure that, what is true or false for any particular culture can be the opposite for some other culture. It depends on the moral norms and belief structures of that society. The same belief practices can be morally right in one society and totally wrong in some other.
Thus, cultural relativism tries to explain that- there are no global belief practices or values that should be universally applicable to all people every time.
For example- An Indian tribe- Callatians are practiced to eat the dead bodies of their fathers. This is done out of respect for their father, where the son wants their father’s spirit to live-in-them forever. But on the other side, Hindu culture practices to burn the corpse of the father by elder sons to provide them ‘moksha’.
Analysing and evaluating the belief systems of some other culture based on the understanding of just owns culture is completely wrong because we are not a part of that culture. The acceptance and non-acceptance of any belief system is based on those respective societies and individual’s values and norms. Right and wrong should be analysed only in the context of culture of the society.