These notes form a part of sanjeev shankar's research, which is summarised in his research report

“ Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster.”¹⁾

An understanding of cultural peculiarities and metaphors can facilitate a deeper understanding to create localised solutions and create strategies to motivate people. From 1970 onwards, Hofstede’s work has analysed cultural values using extensive survey procedures in more than 70 countries (Hofstede, 2001). The author proposed five value dimensions, which have a significant impact on behaviour in all cultures and ranked the surveyed countries on each of them.²⁾ Even though using numbers as cultural indicators is not the best method, following observations can still provide us with a background for such insights.

Individualism versus collectivism refers to the relationship between individuals and groups. Individualistic cultures consider individuals as core of the social structure and expect individuals to look after themselves. Collective cultures stress the importance of groups and expect members of a group to support each other. India is almost two times more collectively oriented than US and UK. It is a collective culture, where group affiliations take precedence over individual goals, and members of a group strongly support each other. Word of mouth and encouragement from family and friends were major drivers to decision making. Social support is actively sought. This is evident in other places like Cuba, Nepal, Greece, Japan, Guatemala, Mexico, Philippines and China where concept of sharing and co-ownership of assets is common.

Power distance is the extent to which the weaker members of a society accept inequality in power. Despite the caste system being forbidden and the Government operating a positive discrimination policy towards the lowest classes, India is characterised by a well-defined social framework that clearly differentiates people according to their social class. Relationships between classes are regulated by strict unwritten rules. Upper and lower class people live parallel lives with minimum overlap. India has a high power distance as compared to US and Europe.

Uncertainty avoidance is the extent to which a society feels uncomfortable with unknown situations, ambiguity and uncertainty.

Masculinity versus femininity refers to the distribution of emotional roles between genders. Masculinity stands for a society where gender roles are clearly distinct (e.g. men are competitive and tough; women are caring and social orientated). Femininity stands for a society where social gender roles overlap. India, especially rural India has a high masculinity versus femininity ratio. Long-term versus short-term orientation refers to the extent to which members of a culture are willing to accept delayed gratification of material, social and emotional needs. Long-term orientation encourages virtues oriented towards future rewards. Short-term orientation promotes virtues related to rewards at the present time. Thrift, perseverance and patience are major virtues in long term orientation societies. These qualities affect the way people are willing to change well established behavioural patterns and affect people’s perception of time and waiting

Another crucial aspect is of Communication. India is hampered by illiteracy and language variety. Some 35% of the population is illiterate and the percentage rises to 46% among the women. Hindi is the principal official language but the Indian Constitution recognises another 17 official languages. This is a crucial statistic since words and their associative meanings play a crucial role in the Indian context. Pesticides in many parts of India still translates to medicine in the local language ! Permaculture on the other hand, has no comparative word in hindi though grihasthashram is a close parallel. As such it is suggested by the researcher that in India it is more important to go back to the roots instead of offering a new system or a new terminology. Ofcourse, the existing traditional system must imbibe aspects of permaculture.