Globalization of Indian Society

Globalization

The term ‘Globalization’ is itself self-explanatory. It is an international platform for maintaining evenness in the living mode of the people all over the world. Globalization is the resultant of the interchange of worldly views, opinions and the various aspects of the culture everywhere around the world. This is the means for providing the international arena for intermingling of people from different sectors, culture and dialects and learns to move and approach socially without hurting and affecting each others’ prestige.

In 20th century India both society and population have changed. India is experiencing several processes of change, such as demographic transition, industrialization and urbanization, skill development, social mobility, legal changes and greater assertion of autonomy. Among them effects of globalization are very significant and far reaching. The term globalization means International Integration. The concept refers to free flow of labor and capital across international borders.

Effects of Globalization on Indian Culture

There are various effects of globalization on Indian culture, experienced in different aspects of the people’s daily lives. Although globalization started way back, it has impacted the cultural beliefs and practices of the people of India in different ways. According to many people, globalization has led to the contamination and erosion of the people’s cultural traditions. However, there are also those who think that globalization is a blessing, which has contributed positively to the development of Indian culture.

The Main Effects of Globalization on the Indian Culture

There have been varied opinions on the effects of globalization on Indian culture. Although it might not be easy to measure the exact impact, there are clear indications that can be seen by a majority. This article will discuss the positive and negative impacts of globalization on the culture of the Indians.

Just like in other nations, the Indian culture is characterized by diverse religions, languages, traditions, foods, art, and architecture among other elements. Over the years, the people of India have been believed to be welcoming and accommodating. This is one of the reasons the country has continued to attract visitors from various parts of the world. As a result of the integration of other cultures, especially Western, the Indian culture is no longer what it used to be. In fact, globalization has affected almost every aspect of the people’s culture.

One of the key areas of the Indian culture that has been affected by globalization is the social values of the people. Before the tide of globalization, Indians treated visitors as God, with a lot of warmth. Besides, elders were accorded high respect in society and the people were so attached to their traditional festivals, which were celebrated in pomp and color. Today, it is quite hard to see such huge social gatherings among Indians. The current generation exercises a lot of restraint and mainly interact based on wealth and financial status. A greater part of their social values has been consumed by other cultures and the cheerful display of togetherness is no longer evident in most cases.

In the traditional Indian society, the main religions were Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism. The people were not accustomed to religions like Christianity, which is now practiced by many Indians. When British Imperialists came into India, they tried to convince the people that Christianity was the only true religion that all should adopt. Although some Indians have opposed the ideas till today, quite a number of them have abandoned their traditional religions and shifted to Christianity, Islam among others. In fact, the newly converted Indians have not only been able to change their faiths but also a greater part of their cultures. In fact, there is also quite a number of Indians who have totally abandoned the concept of religion.

Through globalization, Indians have been able to access information through the internet and other means of communication. This information has been instrumental in shaping the lifestyles of the people, based on modes of dressing, food, entertainment among others. Indians have their traditional way of dressing which is recognized globally. However, many people today no longer conform to those modes of dressings. The youth are the ones mostly affected by this since many of them today dress according to the fashion trends dictated by the West. In fact, almost every Educated Indian now believes that something can only be presumed fit if it is approved by a Western authority.

The traditional Indian society held the institution of marriage in very high regards and things like divorce were unheard of. In fact, divorce was considered a taboo in the Indian culture, condemned in all manners possible. However, there are several cases of divorce and separation among married couples in India today.

Considering the effects of globalization on Indian culture discussed above, it is can be concluded that globalization is a double-edged sword that cuts on both sides. To some extent it is a good move, which has opened avenues for new opportunities for growth and development to the people. On the other hand, globalization has also significantly hurt various elements of the people’s cultural beliefs and practices. However, the effects mainly depend on perceptions and the content or ideas that people consume.

Globalization and its impact

Globalization has a wide role to play worldwide. It has left back its footprints at every sphere of life. Not only in India, but the interchange of world views and ideas has resulted in a major transformation of the lifestyle and living standard of people globally. Indian culture is no bar to this transformation process. Our deep rooted traditions and customs have loosened up their hold with the emergence of globalization. India has a rich cultural background and pride of its culture is famous throughout the world. Globalization has not only inculcated the westernization in India, but conversely the Indian culture has also spread its impact globally. Culture and traditions of any geographic region hold a special significance with respect to its uniqueness and that is the differentiating factor for a population within a geographic boundary from the other. This uniqueness has been disturbed to the varying degrees in lieu of globalization. Such an impact is very much pronounced when they hit a developing country like India.

Let us put some light on the impact on globalization in India.

1.      Global exploration: Globalization initiated with the masses travelling to other geographic areas for exploration, then with the interest of travel and enjoying the personal space, then came the era of searching employment opportunities anywhere on the globe to win the contest of ‘survival of the fittest’. With the advancement of human approach, the globalization started on rooting its footprints at every place. In today’s era the various means of telecommunication, social media, and most importantly the Internet has a big role to play in the spread of globalization.

Globalization has both positive and negative impacts throughout the globe. Right from the environmental challenges from the climatic influence, the air, water soil pollution etc., to the cyber crime; globalization has a huge contribution to all the ill-effects of scientific advancements. May it be business, trade, and work exposure or the economic and financial status of the country; no field is left behind the reach of globalization.

2.      Indian Culture: The culture of any country does not only portray the region and language of the region, but it starts with the mindset and mentality of the residing citizens. Indian culture is quite rich with respect to its heritage and resources, and more importantly due to the welcoming approach of its citizens. India is bouquet of flowers varying religion, dialect, edibles, tradition, custom, music, art and architecture etc, bundled into a single unit of patriotism and unity. The common factor within all these diversities is the Indian mindset of welcoming, greeting, celebrating in a united way with immense affection and togetherness. This is the rich essence of the Indian culture that has attracted many foreigners to stay back in India and mingle into its eternal fragrance.

When we analyze this rich culture with the globalization point of view, we can find many punch holes of westernization and mixing of other traits and cultures into our beautifully woven blanket. Let us closely analyze the impacts of globalization on Indian culture:

3.      Family Structure: Let us start with the key attraction of Indian joint family culture. The joint families have become a strange surprise to the Indians especially to those residing in the metropolitan cities in the small flat culture with the nuclear families blooming up like mushrooms in the rain. We have lost the patience to get adjusted into the joint family, imbibing the values of the elders and getting the young ones brought up under the shadow of their grandparents. Children have started treating grandparents like guests or visitors, and such an upbringing is one of the main reasons of increasing old age homes, as those children consider their own parents as burden in their state of adulthood.

4.      Marriage Values: Similarly, marriages have also lost their values. It is very much evident from the increasing number of divorce cases and the extra-marital affairs reported every now and then. Marriage used to be considered as bonding of the souls which will be linked even after the death; but today marriage is like a professional bond or a so-called commitment to share life without compromising their self-interests. The ego factor into the Indian youth is again a product of globalization.

5.      Adultery: Both the genders were kept at a distance, with lot many restrictions and limitations to the approach for ages in our culture. With the emergence of globalization and western culture, youth have start mixing up well with each other. The friendly approach and the socializing feature is worth appreciable. But the total breakout of restrictions has adulterated the Indian mindset, playing up with the physical relationship. This has given birth to new relationships in India like live-in relationships. Also the increased cases of rape and sexual abuse cases are a result of the perverted mind which again the imported values very much alien to our mother culture.

6.      Social Values: We have the incorporated values of treating the guests as God, warm-hearted welcoming, greeting elders with due respect and a celebrating every small festival with great colour of enjoyment and togetherness. Such a wide gathering with full hue and light can hardly be seen today. People have highly restricted themselves in social interaction. The interaction in present generation is highly diplomatic considering the financial status and wealth. We have lost our social values and cheerful blessing of togetherness. The present generations are happier celebrating Valentine’s Day rather than Holi and Diwali.

7.      Food, Clothing and Dialect: Indian food, clothing and languages are varied with respect to different states. The food varies in its taste, but every food has its own nutrient value and every region is specified and rich in its medicinal preparations with the home remedies. Even the clothing varies in different states which is very much particular in maintaining the dignity of woman. The varies cuisines from all over the world though have different flavours to add, still the food ingredients that have inflicted with much popularity are the junk food items which has increased the health disorders in the country. Again the dressings like the suitings for the males are an inappropriate match for the Indian type of climate. The female dresses are again a way of distraction to the perverted minds.

Even the Indians are not very much in favour of promoting their mother tongue or our national language. Instead the youth today consider it to be a shameful condition to speak in their national language Hindi. The way the foreign languages are getting prevalent in India like the French, German and Spanish, right from the school level, is the example of how much we provide importance to Indian languages in comparison to the foreign ones.

8.      Employment and the Agricultural Sector: India was predominantly an agricultural based country. With the advanced globalization and cropping up of MNCs, the farming has lost its prime value in India. Agricultural science has the least focus amongst the youngsters who consider farming as a shameful profession and look down upon the same. Employment through MNCs has lucrative deals attracting the bulk of manpower who are working for the other countries as their customer care representatives. We are losing our health and our status and slowly getting to the age of economic slavery due to these MNCs. This is what the globalization has provided Indians through their emergence.

To conclude we can call Globalization as a slow spreading risk factor that has covered almost the entire country with its severity. With some positivity of having a generalized knowledge of the culture throughout the world and the happening and incidences globally, still the major negative impacts are quite alarming for our country. Hence, we need to more very cautiously with the globalization process preserving our nation’s pride and maintain our cultural prestige.

Economic Impact

Positive Impact:

1.            Trade with other countries tremendously increased. Exports and imports boomed due to opening up of trade markets.

2.            Global food chain / restaurants.

3.            Liberalization of Indian markets for foreign players. This has increased the inflow of men, money, material, labour, technology etc from foreign countries to India.

4.            Markets expanded. Many of the Indian industries have global markets and India serves as a market for many foreign companies.

5.            Globalization is responsible for the growth of many industries in India and especially software industry.

6.            Growth of MNC’s (Multinational Corporation).

7.            Globalization has given nations greater access to global markets, technology, financial resources and quality services and skilled human resources.

8.            Improvement in and greater access to quality goods and services and an exponential increase in the volume of trade.

9.            Access to global capital resources via the stock market and international debt depending on the economic potential of nations and their markets.

10.        Access to technologies depending on the nations responsiveness to respect to protection of IPR and the responsible usage of technologies.

11.        Access to the world markets to the skilled human resources from nations with inherent intellectual and technical capabilities (the outsourcing of IT, Pharma, BPO and KPO work).

12.        Increase in exports of goods and services in which nations have their respective competencies.

13.        Increased the purchasing capability of the nation through the creation of a sizeable middle class which is hungry for quality goods and services while there co-exists a large poor class whose time is yet to come.

14.        Shifting of labour force from agricultural sector to industrial sector and thus reducing disguised employment in agricultural sector.

15.        High quality and low cost products flooded Indian markets increasing consumers’ choices.

16.        Growth of organized retail chain.

17.        Just few years back in India land phone was a prestige symbol but now mobiles can be seen in the hands of many rich and poor people.

18.        In agricultural sector new varieties of farm equipment, new agricultural practices, applications of biotechnology like drought resistant, pest resistant varieties etc are indirectly due to globalization.

19.        Indian companies adopting international standards in the areas of accounting, inventory management, Human resource, marketing, customer relationship management practices etc.

20.        Increase in flow of investments from developed countries to developing countries, which can be used for economic reconstruction.

21.        India gained highly from the LPG (Liberalisation, privatisation and Globalisation) model as its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) increased to 9.7% in 2007-2008.

22.        The free flow of Information both general and commercial.

Negative Impact

1.            Rich poor divide increased due to unequal distribution of wealth.

2.            Ethical responsibility of business diminished.

3.            Tribes are unable to integrate in the era of globalization and they are facing many problems due to industrial expansion like land alienation, loss of livelihood, displacement etc.

4.            High growth but problem of unemployment.

5.            Price hike and inflation of every daily usable commodities.

6.            Native traditional industries in India got badly affected as they are unable to compete with foreign players.

7.            Government driven public sector units are in sale due to increased privatization.

8.            Growth in different sectors became uneven.

9.            More inflow of money has aggravated the problem of corruption.

We cannot say that the impact of globalization has been totally positive or totally negative. It has been both. Each impact mentioned above can be seen as both positive as well as negative. However, it becomes a point of concern when, an overwhelming impact of globalization can be observed on the Indian culture.

Every educated Indian seems to believe that nothing in India, past or present, is to be approved unless recognized and recommended by an appropriate authority in the West. There is an all-pervading presence of a positive, if not worshipful, attitude towards everything in western society and culture, past as well as present in the name of progress, reason and science. Nothing from the West is to be rejected unless it has first been weighed and found wanting by a Western evaluation. This should be checked, to preserve the rich culture and diversity of India.