What has Globalization done to Indian culture?
Mrinal Chatterjee
Globalisation imposes a kind of homogeneity to
increase scale. Increase in scale, in most of the cases, lower the production
and logistics cost, which makes the produce economically more viable. And if
the produce is found to be attractive (or made to be found to be attractive) by
the potential buyers there is profit. More sales thus translate into more
profit.
However, homogenisation not only impacts
industrial production, it also impacts aspects seemingly removed from
industrial production: food, dress, music, plastic arts. Together it impact the
way a Nation engage with the core issues like what it should be like or what
its core values should be like.
A question that has often been asked is: what
has globalization done to Indian culture? Has it been impacted?
Here is what Steve McCurry, one of the great
contemporary photographers who has been visiting India for the last three and
half decades says as answer to this question in an interview with Rinku Ghosh:[1]
Indian culture has evolved
over time and is one of the greatest cultures on the planet. One of the great
civilisations ever created. Whether it is the music, the way people tie their
turbans or dress. I see the biggest change in dress codes, something that lent
you identity and defined it over time is now assembly line Western wear at
cheaper rates. Maybe they are more efficient and work-friendly. Maybe they are
aspirational for a generation that wants to be hip. The Indianness then starts breaking down. You can’t stop it but in a
way it is kind of sad that what was unique to your culture is fading away. And
rather easily without an attempt at incorporating some strands of originality.
Then you have the food, music and architecture, all of which have lost their
thread to a certain sameness. Everybody now has a cell phone, a laptop or a TV.
I loved how movie hoardings were hand-painted but now are pushed to the
corners.
Evolution
is a necessity. Life moulting into something else, I find that fascinating. So
photographs are a great way of retaining memory of how we were. I compare and
contrast with my past work many a time. I even revisit my spots to understand
change. I remember witnessing Holi in Mathura in the early 90s. It was
incredible, the explosion of colours, though still touristy. Yet I went around
without being noticed in the gush. When I went back there last year, I found
many young aspiring Indian or foreign photographers. Not that the moment wasn’t
authentic but the presence of cameras had changed the crowd behaviour. The boys
were not just shooting down colours in merry abandon, but their actions were
more self-conscious. There was an unspoken code of performing to the
shutterbugs. There was so much chaos, people were dancing and it was still
unbelievable. But I can’t forget how the glut of images everywhere had changed
the perception of subjects about the camera itself.
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