India is a country of diverse tribes, cultures and languages. As such, the Indian sub-continent plays host to many varied forms of art and culture, which differ from region to region in the country. This leads to a great diversity in the area of folk music and musical instruments.

Across the Indian sub-continent, one would find many forms of music and dance like Bhangra, Lavani, Dandiya etc, each of which has a distinct style of music and involves the use of different combinations of instruments. Modern, popular Indian music does usually have influences of one of these or combinations of these rhythmic styles. Folk music from various parts of the country has also seen to be a great influence on the popular musical trends today. Folk music is generally considered a high art form and has also influence classical music in different regions from time to time. Indian folk music is generally fitted to suit specific dance forms.

Indian folk music, depending on which area it originates from, may use a variety of traditional Indian musical instruments like the tabla, dholak, nal, daf, ektar, dotar, sariingda, rabab and santoor. These are very different from the instruments like the sitar and sarod which are popular in classic music.

Another major difference is the manner in which folk music is passed down from generation to generation. There are no schools to teach folk music and people tend to pick it up during the usual course of their daily rituals as opposed to classical music which is expressly and specifically taught to students.