So Long Sarees, Hello Blue Jeans

By Srinand Jha, TomPaine.com. Posted November 12, 2001.

New Delhi, India -- Globalization has fueled a cultural revolution in India -- an American cultural revolution. The changes, spurred by the last 10 years of U.S.-centric economic policies, have forced a transformation almost as monumental as the 200-odd years of British colonial rule.

Until the 1990s, India's semi-socialist regime had waged a fairly successful battle against American consumerism, but financial crisis finally forced the government to open up the country. Today, America's influence is corroding India's rich culture and unique traditions.

Young people, mesmerized by popular television programs like "Baywatch" or "The Bold and the Beautiful," have taken to emulating program characters. Indian teens are also increasingly obsessed with going to the gym or jogging in name brand sneakers -- Reeboks or Nikes -- like their American peers. Western-style fashion shows are now common, and sexual promiscuity is on the rise.

Teens today know the inside scoop on Madonna's private life, but often have not heard of Khudi Ram Bose, one of India's freedom fighters against British rule. This stands in stark contrast to the 1960s, '70s and '80s, when students were at the forefront of social and political struggles in India. Today, most youth dream of getting to the United States -- on a scholarship, through a job, or by marrying a green-card holder.

"The Indian elites have never been more adrift from their cultural roots than at present," says Pawan K. Verma, author of The Great Indian Middle Class, about the social attitudes of Indians in the post-globalization era.

Traditional dress for Indian women, the saree and the salwar kameez, have been cast aside in the bigger cities for Wrangler or Lee jeans with skimpy half-shirts baring the mid-riff. And countless Indian girls have taken to dying their hair blonde, as more and more beauty parlors pop up to fill the demand.

America's influence has turned Indian values on sex and marriage upside down. Divorce rates have multiplied. In bigger cities, an increasing number of Indian women are deciding to live and stay alone, forming a new identity for India: 'the single woman.'

The penetration of American values in India has forced a market shift towards greater service orientation, and a corresponding increase in manufacturing activity. Credit fever has infected Indians, encouraged by the greater availability of bank loans and credit cards.

"The process of globalization in the West was spread over a period of more than 200 years. In India, it has come in a compressed form of 10 years," says Sheo Narayan Singh Anived, a senior government official and prominent intellectual. "And [the globalization process] rides piggyback on the American communications systems -- the world's most efficient and powerful communications systems. Therefore, [globalization] is bound to have the sort of impact that it is having in India and the rest of the Third World."

Cellular phones have become indispensable for urban Indians. Internet use has skyrocketed as more and more Indians spend time in cyber chat rooms debating a range of subjects -- from love to politics or pornography. Hindi versions of programs like "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" and "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire" have also sprung up.

Still, while American culture is revolutionizing India's urban centers, rural India largely remains untouched. Last year, then-U.S. President Clinton visited a village called Nyala, but 37-year-old Shahnawaz Khan, who lives in a village nearby, doesn't remember Clinton's name. He refers to Clinton simply as "Duniya Ka Shahenshah" -- "ruler of the world" in the local Urdu language. Khan, a father of six, is from Garhi Mewat, a village 140 kilometers from New Delhi in the northern state of Haryana. Khan recalls that Clinton talked about empowering Indian women and donated six computers to the village.

"The [ruler] comes here and whiles away his time with silly women and donates these useless machines. If he had to donate, he could have given us cows, buffaloes and tractors. Or he could have taken us to America to work as laborers," Khan says.

For Khan and his generation in Garhi Mewat, known as the Village of Thieves, life was fine up until the 1990s -- when globalization began to fully penetrate India. The villagers had been traditional thieves. But now, with globalization and the bombardment of American ideas, thievery as a profession is out of fashion. Today, the younger generation migrates to nearby towns in search of work as brick kiln or construction workers. One enterprising fellow even set up a cyber café in a nearby town.

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